Gamecock women's basketball advanced to 20-2 (6-1 SEC) on Sunday with a 103-74 rout of No. 5 Vanderbilt (20-1, 6-1 SEC). The Commodores were the first team in the conference to reach 20 wins this season.
South Carolina was coming off an overtime road loss to No. 16 Oklahoma, where the team was outscored by 12 in the final period to fall by a score of 94-82. The Gamecocks haven't lost back-to-back games since the 2018-19 season, and Sunday's win marked 240 games without consecutive losses.
In the loss to the Sooners, South Carolina shot 37% from the field. After shooting 50% in the first quarter, the team couldn't exceed 40% in any other quarter, including overtime, for the remainder of the game.
On Sunday against Vanderbilt, that couldn't have been further from the case; the Gamecocks shot 72% from the field across the game's first 10 minutes, a trend that didn't die out after the initial period.
"That was not us, the Oklahoma game," junior guard Tessa Johnson said. "We knew we had it coming. We deserved that. It fired us up in a good way."
Freshman guard Agot Makeer started over senior center Madina Okot. Okot struggled against Oklahoma, shooting 3-9 with three turnovers. In her place, Makeer made an impact immediately on Sunday, grabbing two steals in the first quarter.
"Starting a smaller lineup, we could apply a lot more pressure than we normally do," head coach Dawn Staley said. "Just floor spacing from an offensive standpoint."
Senior guard Ta'Niya Latson bounced back on Sunday after only making one field goal against Oklahoma, scoring 10 points with three assists in the first, including a 3-pointer as time ran out to end the quarter.
South Carolina has had success scoring in the paint this season, ranking second in the nation with 48.3 points per game and outscoring SEC teams in the paint by 11.3 points per game. In the first quarter alone, the Gamecocks outscored Vanderbilt in the paint 20-4.
Despite being the SEC's leading scorer at 24.8 points per game, Vanderbilt sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes scored her first points of the game after shooting 0-4 to start. Held mostly in check, Blakes led her team with 18 points in the first half, along with five rebounds and three assists.
By halftime, three Gamecocks reached double-digit points: Johnson with 14, Latson with 12 and Okot with 11. Both teams were shooting over 60% from the field and from beyond the arc through the two quarters.
The key difference that gave the Gamecocks their 11-point halftime lead was turnovers, which South Carolina limited to just eight compared to Vanderbilt's 16. The Gamecocks capitalized off those turnovers, scoring 24 points off turnovers.
In South Carolina's previous two SEC match-ups, against Texas and Oklahoma, the team struggled most in the third quarter. Coming out of halftime, the unit shot 41.2% against the Longhorns and 33.3% against the Sooners in each game's third period.
The team also allowed the Longhorns and Sooners to shoot 63.6% and 50% in each third quarter, respectively. Both marks were the best by each team across four quarters of regulation.
In a twist of fate, the Gamecocks had their best quarter in the third of this game. The team shot 57.9% on 19 total shots and held the Commodores to 25% for 5-20, their worst period on the day.
"Vandy is a really good team, so we knew had to play great defense to win that game," Latson said.
Vanderbilt turned the ball over 20 times in the game, an impressive mark considering the team only averages about 12 per game on the season. South Carolina held Blakes to 5 points in the second half on 2-11, or 18%, from the field. She finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
"Our rotations were pretty good when (Blakes) wasn't able to get all the way to the basket," Staley said. "You have to team-defend her because she's that good."
South Carolina exited the third quarter with a 26-point lead. South Carolina carried that momentum into the fourth, shooting 60% from the field in the game's final quarter. Seven of the team's ten active players scored in the fourth.
The Gamecocks dominated down low on Sunday, outscoring the Commodores in the paint 56-24. Okot returned to form, posting 17 points on a near-perfect 8-9 day from the field with seven rebounds.
"It was a different presence for (Okot) out there," Johnson said. "That's the (Okot) that we've been missing."
With a final score of 103-74, South Carolina has scored over 100 points seven times this season.
"We were playing connected basketball on both ends," Staley said. "We haven't had a game in which we were just connected on both sides of the ball. It would either be the defense or the offense."