Gamecocks Survive Rockfight Against Ole Miss

Despite their sloppy play, South Carolina found a way to exit Oxford with an overtime victory.

Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks entered today's matchup on the heels of earning their 32nd straight victory. Still, the Ole Miss Rebels made it abundantly clear in the opening minutes that they didn't care about South Carolina's reputation.

In the first quarter, South Carolina and Ole Miss got off to solid defensive starts and struggled to find the basket offensively, as they collectively shot 30.5 percent from the floor in the period. For South Carolina, the Rebels sagged back into a quasi-zone defense, which made the Gamecocks take an abnormal amount of deep jump shots across the board and made Carolina play more isolation ball due to the looks Ole Miss were giving them.

On the other end, South Carolina's guards made Ole Miss exert more energy to find open looks, but the experience of the Rebels showed, as they made an abundance of subtle hesitation moves in the middle of drives to the basket to create separation and get hard-earned baskets. In the second quarter, the Gamecocks made it a stronger point of emphasis to get the ball to Kamilla Cardoso due to her obvious advantage in terms of height against her opposition. Zia Cooke also caught the Rebels' defense flat-footed in transition, giving Carolina a one-point lead heading into halftime.

At the start of the third quarter, the contest remained a back-and-forth affair, as the Gamecocks continued to have issues getting the ball inside or making a clean pass into a one-on-one opportunity. The Rebels, at one point, fell behind six points, but the Gamecocks missed their shots in the final minutes of the third quarter and, paired with some turnovers, could not put their foot on the gas and extend their lead.

In the fourth quarter, South Carolina, once again through their persistence in getting the basketball in the paint area, extended their lead to four points, but the Rebels held the Gamecocks to one point in the final three minutes and forty-one seconds of regulation to force a last-second miss by Aliyah Boston and overtime for South Carolina.

In overtime, both teams, clearly fatigued at this point in the bout, struggled out the gate, as only two points were scored collectively in the first two minutes and fourteen seconds, but the Gamecocks' stars and championship mettle took over, as Aliyah Boston, Kamilla Cardoso, and Zia Cooke scored all of Carolina's nine points to help South Carolina pull away at the end.

You Might Also Like:

• Chronicling The Past Few Weeks For GG Jackson
• Takeaways From The Gamecocks' Demoralizing Loss To Vanderbilt
• South Carolina Discusses Win Over LSU

Join the community:

• Follow Andrew Lyon on Twitter: @ALyon_SC
• Follow Christian Dart on Twitter: @ChristianJDart
• Follow Fisher Brewer on Twitter: @USCTalk
• Follow Locked On Gamecocks on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @GamecocksDigest & follow us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.