Gamecocks Overcome Early Struggles To Move Past South Florida

South Carolina's Women's Basketball team fought through early offensive struggles to move past South Florida and advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

Dawn Staley and South Carolina's Women's Basketball team came into Sunday just one game away from making it to the sweet sixteen for the ninth straight time after swarming the Norfolk State Spartans with their defensive prowess in the first round, just needing a victory over the eighth-seeded the South Florida Bulls. At the beginning of the contest, however, there was a collective realization that the victory the Gamecocks seeked would have to be earned the hard way.

The Gamecocks got off to a slow offensive start, as South Florida's physicality against Aliyah Boston and the Gamecocks' frontcourt made South Carolina's guards hesitant to throw the basketball inside. Combined with a few sloppy turnovers, the Gamecocks, for the second time this season, were trailing at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, South Carolina found an offensive rhythm through their intentionality in getting to the rim, drawing multiple South Florida fouls, and creating numerous put-back opportunities by packing the paint around whoever was attempting to put the ball through the hoop.

The second half, however, was when South Carolina would begin to assert their dominance over South Florida, as the Gamecocks would outscore the Bulls by 27 points in the final twenty minutes thanks to their defensive adjustments and a fantastic third-quarter performance by Zia Cooke, who scored nine of her 21 points in that period. A big reason South Carolina pulled away as the game progressed was how they shut down star forward Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, who came into the game averaging a double-double for the season but finished with just four points and eight rebounds.

"It was intentional to go at her pretty early," Staley said regarding Dulcy after the game. "I thought that just throwing different bodies at her really just allowed us to create an advantage there."

While it wasn't always pretty on opening weekend, Dawn Staley believes games like the one against South Florida will help prepare her team for what's to come.

"It's always great to be able to allow the players to make plays and determine who wins the game. I thought the officials let us play both ways, and it probably benefitted us more because we have so much depth and we have the ability to just play that way if we need to play pretty physical."

You Might Also Like:

• The Story Inside The Game: South Carolina vs Norfolk State University
• South Carolina's WBB Team Unveils New Locker Room
  
• Dawn Staley In Aflac Commercial Series With Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Join the community:

• Follow Andrew Lyon on Twitter: @ALyon_SC
• Follow Christian Dart on Twitter: @ChristianJDart
• Follow Arvon Bacon on Twitter: @baconnetworkllc
• Follow Fisher Brewer on Twitter: @USCTalk
• Follow Matt Bishop on Twitter: @ThatsABishop
• 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.