Gamecocks Escape Chapel Hill With Narrow 65-58 Victory Over Tar Heels

South Carolina's women's basketball team had a sloppy outing against North Carolina but found a way to walk out with a win.

It had been smooth sailing to this point in the season for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks, who had won each of their first five games by an average margin of 51.6 points. Thursday night, however, would see Carolina face their toughest challenge yet in the season, as they played their first true road game of the season against the No. 24 North Carolina Tar Heels.

It was clear from the onset that this was going to be tougher test than some expected, as the Tar Heels were more than prepared for the Gamecocks main offensive strategy: feeding the ball to Kamilla Cardoso on the low block. This led to everyone else playing essential iso. ball, with seemingly no backup plans, and it costed them dearly. Staley's team didn't hit the 15-point threshold until the 5:04 mark in the second quarter, as the Gamecocks shot 28.6% from the floor and turned over the basketball seven times in that same stretch.

Despite their horrific start to the game offensively, South Carolina's defense kept them in it, as they held the Tar Heels to 33 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes of action, and went into the halftime break only down three points. In the second half, Te-Hina Paopao and Bree Hall would both hit multiple timely shots, including five combined 3-point makes, to give them a narrow lead and put more pressure on North Carolina to respond. 

The Gamecocks continued to maintain a narrow advantage thanks to their well-executed defensive switches, but the Powder Blue continued to keep the margin close due to their multiple trips to their charity stripe. Although the Tar Heels cut the Carolina lead down to three points with 36 seconds remaining, Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins would both hit two clutch free throws to ice the game and keep the Gamecocks undefeated mark.

South Carolina will stay in The Tar Heel State as they make the short trip to Durham to take on the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday afternoon.

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