Gamecock Digest

Gamecocks Clinch Share Of SEC Regular Season Title

South Carolina's women's basketball team overcame another sluggish start to defeat Tennessee and accomplish one of their season goals.

Andrew Lyon

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks have come a long way from where they once used to stand both in the SEC and the country when it came to women's college basketball. A decade ago, winning the regular season championship would've been considered a tremendous accomplishment for the Gamecocks, especially considering where the Tennessee Volunteers stood in the sport's hierarchy.

On Thursday night, in a game with a strong sense of irony, the Gamecocks accomplished what's now considered their bare minimum goal, winning at least a share of the conference's regular season title, and did so by defeating the Tennessee Volunteers on their home floor. Although Carolina made the game look relatively out of reach for the contest's duration, it certainly didn't start that way.

The first five minutes were a back-and-forth affair between both teams, as they made it a point to attack the paint and did so with relative ease. Tennessee, however, made the Gamecocks discombobulated offensively for the rest of the period by overloading the paint area, which made Carolina's guards extremely hesitant with their decision-making and thus led to many inefficient and empty possessions.

Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston led the charge for the Volunteers and extended the lead to ten points with six minutes and thirty-seven seconds left in the first half. The Gamecocks, however, awoke from their proverbial slumber from this point forward, going on a 17-3 for the remainder of the half thanks to the outside shooting of Kierra Fletcher and Zia Cooke, along with the aggressiveness of Brea Beal.

In the second half, South Carolina continued to pour it on as the guards continued to find or create open looks for themselves, alleviating star forward Aliyah Boston, who was dealing with constant pressure from the Volunteers' front court. Carolina also stepped up defensively from the midway point in the second quarter onward, which came from a combination of fighting through screens and sticking with their primary matchup, along with the Volunteers missing more tough shots that they were nailing early on in the matchup.

The Gamecocks essentially turned the game into a war of attrition that Tennessee could not handle for the final 25 minutes. South Carolina has now conquered all their nationally recognizable competition on their schedule and will play their final regular season matchup on Sunday against the Georgia Bulldogs in front of a sold-out Colonial Life Arena.

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Andrew Lyon
ANDREW LYON

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