It's Better in Columbia Than in the Bahamas for Gamecocks

When South Carolina found out Friday night that their opponent would be Syracuse on Sunday, they already had first hand knowledge of the Orange.  Earlier in the season, the Gamecocks played the Orange in a preseason tournament in the Bahamas.   South Carolina had to rally from a ten point deficit with a little under seven minutes left to beat then No. 22 Syracuse 67-63 in the Junkanoo Jam.

The Orange had played a zone in that game, packing it in against the Gamecocks' bigs, daring South Carolina to hit from the outside.   The Gamecocks hit on nine of twenty six three pointers and were actually out-rebounded by the smaller Orange 50-35.

So Dawn Staley and her team knew what was cut out for them Sunday evening.  They were going to have to have their outside game working against's Cuse's zone and do their best to contend for rebounds against the tenacious Orange.

When my color analyst, aka my older son, Matthew and I got to Colonial Life Arena about ninety minutes before game time, we saw a large crowd standing outside of the arena, full of umbrellas due to the light rain falling. I believe due to NCAA rules, they were not allowing fans to enter the arena until an hour before game time.

It was my fourth NCAA Tournament and my second NCAA Women's Tournament.  My first women's tournament had actually been in 2001, when my good friend and now Seton Hall Women's Basketball Head Coach, Anthony Bozzella, took his LIU Brooklyn team to the NEC Championship in 2001.  His reward was to face UConn in Storrs in the First Round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament and I was there as his team lost to the #1 seed Huskies.   It's ironic that in Coach Bozzella's second ever NCAA Tournament appearance this season, he would again be in Storrs (Seton Hall lost a close first round game to Rutgers last night).

I had been to two NCAA Men's tournament regionals in Raleigh in 2008 and last year.  In 2008, I got to see Davidson and Steph Curry upset first Gonzaga and then Georgetown.  Last year, I got to see Mercer upset Duke.  This year, I was rooting for chalk.

Once 6:00 PM hit, a loud roar came from the crowd as they finally let the fans into the arena.   The crowd line moved at a reasonable pace and we got into the arena rather quickly, then along with the rest of the large herd, got through the ticket takers.   I decided to splurge for a $15 NCAA program, which is actually a nice keepsake.  Every team that made the tournament has their own page in the program with a team photo, roster, statistics leaders, team record and results.  It was cool to see Seton Hall and South Carolina's teams in there.

The 10,485 fans in attendance were energized from the get go, with a loud "Let's Go Gamecocks" chant to start things out.   Syracuse struck first on a three by their point guard Alexis Petersen, who reminded me of a female Pearl Washington.  But South Carolina answered. scoring eleven of the next thirteen points.  The Gamecocks moved the ball well around the Orange zone, as they had three assists during the span, two by Tiffany Mitchell.   Asia Dozier banged in two three pointers, the second of which put the Gamecocks up seven, 14-7.

The Gamecocks extended the lead to eleven, 20-9 on a Mitchell three pointer.  They extended the lead to thirteen, 27-14 as Alaina Coates hit three free throws as the smaller Orange couldn't contain her in the paint, despite their zone.   The Orange would cut the deficit to ten, 27-17 on a Brianna Butler three pointer.   Butler and Petersen combined to score fifteen of Syracuse's first seventeen points.

But that's as close as Syracuse would get the rest of the way.   South Carolina would respond with a 10-0 run over three and a half minutes, as again the Orange could not handle the bigger Gamecocks inside.  A'ja Wilson's two free throws put South Carolina up twenty, 37-17 with five and a half minutes left till halftime

The Gamecocks would actually extend the lead even further, thanks to unselfish basketball and nice passing.  South Carolina would have assists on their next six baskets, capped by an assist by Dozier on Aleigsha Welch layup to make the score 51-23.   The Gamecocks would enter the half up 53-25.  Their unselfish play over the first twenty minutes rendered Syracuse's zone useless.

The early three pointers by the Gamecocks, combined with the Syracuse bigs; Briana Day, Bria Day, Isabella Slim and Taylor Ford all getting into foul trouble, opened up the paint for South Carolina's bigs; Coates, Wilson and Welch.  The game was over for all intensive purposes at halftime.

The start of the second half saw the Gamecocks hold serve and actually extend the lead to thirty one, 63-32, on an Elem Ibiam jumper.  With about ten minutes left, the lead was still twenty eight, 71-43.   Syracuse would cut the deficit down to twenty, 85-65 on a Peterson three pointer with 4:43 left.  But South Carolina would actually extend the margin over the last few minutes, holding the Orange to three points the rest of the way, eventually winning 97-68.

The Gamecocks shot fifty two percent from the field, including a very efficient eight of nineteen from beyond the arc.  South Carolina distributed the ball extremely well on the evening with twenty assists. They also out-rebounded the Orange 40-35 and held Syracuse to thirty three percent shooting from the field.

Finally, the Gamecocks showed a great amount of balance, with six players scoring in double figures.  Coates and Mitchell each had fourteen points, Wilson and Welch each had thirteen points and Dozier and Bianca Cuevas, an absolute blur when on the court, each had twelve points.

Petersen led all scorers with twenty three points.  Cornelia Fondren added sixteen for the Cuse, while Butler had twelve points.

The Gamecocks now move onto the Sweet Sixteen and a likely rematch with North Carolina, who defeated South Carolina in last year' Sweet Sixteen (that's if the Tar Heels get by the Buckeyes of Ohio State tomorrow).   But it seems the Gamecocks like having rematches with opponents.  The Tar Heels might want to ask the Orange about that.

Gamecocks' Balance, Size and Depth Too Much for Aggies

In the span of a little more than forty eight hours, Colonial Life Arena was the center of the men's and women's basketball universe and ESPN, with two games featuring #1 ranked, undefeated teams.  On Saturday at noon, the South Carolina men's team hosted #1 Kentucky in front of a sold out crowd of 18,000.   On Monday night, the #1 ranked South Carolina women's team hosted #12 Texas A&M.

On Saturday, The Wildcats were too much for the Gamecocks on Saturday.   Kentucky's size thwarted any inside play that South Carolina could muster and the Gamecocks outside shooting woes continued in a Wildcats 58-43 victory.

South Carolina fans were looking for revenge on Monday night and they again proved why the Gamecocks are #10 in the country in women's basketball attendance.  13,546 strong came out Monday night for the nationally televised ESPN game.   The lower bowl of the arena was completely full and the upper bowl was about 1/4 full.  It made for a loud and fun atmosphere, especially when you had Baseline Jesus running around the arena, pumping up the crowd.  The fans were eager to see their Gamecocks dominate the Aggies.

The Aggies however are one of the few teams that can match the size of Dawn Staley's Gamecocks, who have four players six foot four or taller; Alaina Coates, A'ja Wilson, Elem Ibiam and Jatarie White.   Texas A&M has a six foot seven center in junior Rachel Mitchell, a six foot five freshman in Khaalia Hillsman and six foot three Jada Terry.

Thus the Aggies were able to trade blows with the physical Gamecocks for the first twelve minutes. Hillsman hit a layup to put Texas A&M up 24-20.  The South Carolina fans were starting to get restless.

Then just like that, the Gamecocks came alive.  They went on a 14-0 run over the next four and half plus minutes.  It was sparked by the six foot four freshman guard Wilson.   Yes, Wilson is listed as a guard and she drives and runs the court like a guard.  Wilson had four points and an assist during that span.  Her assist on an Ibiam layup capped the run and put the Gamecocks up 34-24.

One possession late in the first half showed how difficult it is to match-up with South Carolina due to their size and relentlessness. Aleighsa Welch missed a short jumper.  Wilson grabbed the offensive rebound and missed the putback. Coates got the rebound and missed a putback.  Welch got the rebound and put it back in for a layup and a 39-29 lead.   I turned to my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew and said "Four for a quarter".

The Gamecocks would end up leading at halftime 39-31.   At halftime, the University celebrated all its 3.0 scholar athletes with a parade around the court of all the players on the teams with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.    After the parade, there wasn't enough time left for the usual Cocky dance with the kids, since they couldn't assemble the kids that quickly after the parade.  Thus Cocky was left to dance with himself and you could dance in your seats with Cocky.  Matthew had no interest in dancing to the Chicken Dance in his seat.

The Gamecocks must have left their shooting touch in the locker room at halftime.  South Carolina failed to score a basket over nearly the first five and half minutes in the second half.   They only scored one point on a free throw over the first three minutes.

Meanwhile, Jordan Jones was going to work for the Aggies.   She scored five points during this span, including a three pointer to cut the Gamecocks lead to 40-38.   The South Carolina faithful starting getting antsy as the Gamecocks lead was being challenged.


South Carolina answered the bell.   Tiffany Mitchell was able to get to the foul line in the Gamecocks' next two possessions. She nailed all four free throws to put South Carolina up six, 44-38.  Mitchell then found Welch on a nice pass for a layup for the first basket for the Gamecocks in the second half.  Then Coates made two free throws to put South Carolina back up ten 48-38.

Courtney Walker would hit two jumpers in a row to get Texas A&M back within six, 48-42.  But after that, the Gamecocks clamped down on the Aggies.  Over the span of the next six and a half minutes, South Carolina held Texas A&M to two free throws and a layup.  Meanwhile, the Gamecocks did a great job of sharing the basketball, with assists on four baskets during the span.  The small but feisty point guard Bianca Cuevas capped the the 19-4 Gamecocks' run with a layup to put South Carolina up 67-46 with 6:46 left in the game.

From there, Texas A&M had no choice to try to slow the game down by fouling.  Ten of the last twelve Gamecocks points came on free throws.  Despite slowing the game down, the Aggies could not get any closer than eighteen points the rest of the way.  And that was the final score margin as South Carolina won convincingly 79-61.

The Aggies were held to thirty eight percent from the field and they were fortunate they shot that well.   Texas A&M's second leading scorer on the season, Courtney Williams was 3 for 21 from the field.   The Aggies leading scorer on the season, Courtney Walker,  was held four points under her season average of fourteen.   South Carolina out-rebounded Texas A&M 43-29.

The Gamecocks shot forty nine percent from the field and eighty percent from the line (24 of 30).  Four players scored in double figures for South Carolina;  Wilson led the way off the bench with eighteen points and nearly had a double double as she grabbed nine rebounds.  Mitchell added sixteen points.  Coates had a double double with twelve points and eleven rebounds and Welch added twelve points and seven rebounds.

Unlike Saturday, the Gamecock crowd went home happy.  Their #1 team again showed their dominance against a very good SEC opponent.  A lot of talk around the college basketball world is whether the Kentucky men's team can go through the season undefeated or at least through the SEC conference.

After last night's performance at Colonial Life Arena, I expect the same talk to pick up about the South Carolina women's team.

Yes, they're that dominant.

Staley Wins 300th Career Game as Gamecocks Defeat 49ers

Entering last night's contest with Charlotte, Dawn Staley had 299 career wins as a head coach, 127 of which had come at the University of South Carolina.    There was little doubt that she would get her milestone Thursday evening at Colonial Life Arena as her #1 ranked team faced a 49ers team that entered the contest having lost five straight games.  The surprise came in the effort of Charlotte.

As per usual, the Gamecocks wanted to use their height advantage and looked to score inside right from the tip-off.  Center Ibiam Elem was fouled in the act of shooting and hit her two free throws for the first two points of the game.  The 49ers responded with an unusual game plan, go inside on the taller Gamecocks front line,  Charlotte forward Olivia Rankin, a player who only averages four points per game, matched her season average quickly with two straight baskets off post plays and the 49ers took a 4-2 lead.

South Carolina responded with six straight points.  Elem was responsible for four of those points and her jumper, which gave her six early points, put the Gamecocks up 8-4.   The Gamecocks would slowly extend the lead to five, 16-11 on an A'ja Wilson jumper with about fourteen minutes left in the half.

Charlotte answered back, outscoring South Carolina 8-2 over the next two minutes.  The 49ers leading scorer on the season, Lefty Webster would score six of the eight 49ers points in that spurt.  Her jumper gave Charlotte a 19-18 lead.

South Carolina tied the game on an Alaina Coates free throw, then regained the lead for good with a Tina Roy three pointer.   The Gamecocks would extend their lead to five, 26-21 on two more free throws by Coates.   However, Charlotte refused to go away as their second leading scorer on the season, Hilary Sigmon nailed a three pointer and with about seven and a half minutes left in the first half, the score was 26-24 South Carolina.

For twelve and a half minutes, the Gamecocks were in a battle with the 49ers.  But as shown throughout the season, South Carolina was capable of huge runs at any time.  The time finally came with 7:38 left in the half.

The Gamecocks would outscore the 49ers 20-2 over the next seven minutes and 37 seconds. Tiffany Mitchell, the SEC Player of the Year and Gamecocks' leading scorer, would score seven of those points, including at three pointer to make the score 44-26.  The run was highlighted though by a sweet no-look pass from Bianca Cuevas to Wilson for a layup.  Coates would cap the run with a layup to make the score 46-26.

But just as it looked like the Gamecocks would enter the locker room up twenty at the half, Cuevas inexplicably fouled Charlotte's Ayanna Holmes.  Holmes would hit two free throws and we went to the half with South Carolina up 46-28.

At the start of the second half, everyone figured that the Gamecocks would continue right where they left off from at the end of the first half and put the 49ers away.  Charlotte had other ideas.

The 49ers would hit on all of their first six field goal attempts in the second half.   Webster, who was a thorn in the Gamecocks' side the entire game, nailed another jumper to cut the Gamecocks lead to thirteen, 55-42 with fifteen minutes left in the half.   A team that had lost five straight games and had lost their most recent game in a tournament in Mexico to Princeton by thirty points, was fighting tooth and nail with the #1 team in the country for twenty five minutes.

But the height differential between the 49ers and the Gamecocks proved to be too much in the end. Despite their early second half offensive flurry, Charlotte could not keep South Carolina from scoring inside.  Eventually the Gamecocks started pulling away, going up by as many as twenty five points several times, the last being 82-57 before Charlotte scored the last four points to make the final 82-61 and give Staley her 300th career game.

The Gamecocks again showed the balanced scoring that is going to make them very difficult to beat this season.  Six players scored between nine and seventeen points for the Gamecocks.  The freshman Wilson led the way with seventeen points off the bench and Coates came off the bench as well to score fifteen points, The Gamecocks had a 41-8 advantage on bench points. Ibiam scored sixteen points and Welch had ten points, as South Carolina outscored Charlotte 46-20 in the paint. Mitchell and Tina Roy each had nine points for the Gamecocks, who shot fifty five percent from the field.

Charlotte, a WNIT team last season, had to be proud of the fact that they had the highest field goal percentage of any team that has faced South Carolina this season.  The 49ers shot forty five percent from the field for the game and fifty four percent from the field in the second half.  No team had shot higher than thirty eight percent against the Gamecocks coming into the game.  Webster led the 49ers with seventeen points and Sigmon, who was a perfect 3 for 3 from beyond the arc, added thirteen points.

South Carolina now faces their most difficult road game of the season, a matchup with #8 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke.  Having been there two years ago for an Iona -Duke women's basketball game, I can tell you that place will be really loud on Sunday.   But if the Gamecocks show the balance they did last night and get good three point shooting from Mitchell and Roy,  South Carolina will get Staley her 301st victory.

South Carolina Defense Suffocates North Carolina Central in 90-26 Win

Much to my chagrin, due to my Little League Baseball coaching and board member duties, I was unable to make the first three South Carolina Women's Basketball games.  But fall baseball finally ended and my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, and I were able to see the Gamecocks take on the Eagles of North Carolina Central last night at Colonial Life Arena.

South Carolina entered the game as the #1 team in the nation, undefeated at 5-0.  Their latest win was also their toughest contest to date, a 67-63 win over #22 Syracuse in the championship game of  the Junkanoo Jam Tournament in the Bahamas.  The Orange shot thirty eight percent, which mind you is a low field goal percentage.  Still, that was the first time all season the Gamecocks allowed a team to shoot over thirty three percent from the field.  And all the teams that South Carolina defeated entering last night's game were from power or high major conferences - USC (Pac-12), Clemson (ACC), San Diego State (Mountain West), Wisconsin (Big 10) and Syracuse (ACC).

Thus entering Monday night's game against South Carolina, North Carolina Central, A MEAC school that entered the game at 2-3, had a really tall task ahead of them.  It was especially a tall task, considering the Gamecocks had four players six foot four or taller.  And that height played a big part in suffocating the Eagles all night.

It was quickly apparent from tipoff that NCCU was going to have a hard time scoring on the night.  The Eagles won the tip but struggled to get a shot off as the shot clock expired.  The Gamecocks quickly gathered the rebound and Alegisha Welch scored on a fast break layup.   Again on their next possession, North Carolina Central struggled to get a decent shot off.  Again the Gamecocks rebounded and Tiffany Mitchell scored on a fast break layup.   Rinse, lather, repeat.

At the first media timeout, the score was 14-3.   The Gamecocks would add another eight points, capped by an A'ja Wilson three point play.  The six foot five lefty freshman has the quickness of a guard and a fan behind me described her as a young female version of Bill Russell with the way she moves in the paint.  I thought it was a pretty good description of Wilson's skills.   South Carolina was up 22-3 before you could bat an eye.

It was here that NCCU made a smart move and went to a zone, packing their players in on the South Carolina bigs.  Instead of moving the ball to open shooters, the Gamecocks continued to try to work the ball inside, forcing passes to covered frontcourt players, resulting in turnovers.   It allowed the Eagles to outscore the Gamecocks 12-7 over the next four minutes.  The Eagles were now only down fourteen, 29-15 with 5:17 left in the half.

But that's as close as the NCCU would get the rest of the way.  South Carolina would outscore them 10-1 the rest of the half.  The Gamecocks would enter the half leading 39-16 as they finally hit a three pointer from the outside, with Asia Dozier doing the damage.  

After a halftime show that included Cocky leading a large group of kids in The Chicken Dance, the Gamecocks' Mitchell came out and showed light feet of her own.  On the first two Eagles possessions, she stole the ball.  One led to a layup by Mitchell, the other a three point play by Welch.  South Carolina was quickly up 44-16.  

From there, the rout was on.  The Gamecocks stepped up their game on both ends of the court.  South Carolina, which attempted only three three pointers in the first half,  went four for ten from beyond the arc in the second half.  The Gamecocks need to do this so that teams won't pack their zone in on the South Carolina bigs.

Meanwhile, NCCU was held to ten total points in the second half.   When the Eagles had the ball, if it wasn't stolen, it was blocked.  If the shot wasn't blocked, the shot was altered.   North Carolina Central just struggled to get any decent shots off on the evening.  With ten minutes left, the Gamecocks were already up forty, 63-23 and the Eagles would only score three more points in the game.

All that was left was for Coach Dawn Staley to play everyone on her bench, which she did.  All fourteen Gamecocks players played at least two minutes, with twelve of her players playing six minutes or more.  South Carolina would go on to the 90-26 victory.  It was the third time this season the Gamecocks won by fifty or more points; they defeated Clemson by fifty eight points and San Diego State by fifty one points. 

South Carolina shot sixty percent from the field and had five players in double figures scoring.  Wilson came off the bench to lead all scorers with sixteen points.  She would have had over twenty points easily had she hit a few open shots in the paint.  Dozier and Mitchell each had fourteen points.   Welch added eleven points and Elem Ibiam had ten points.  The Gamecocks had twenty three assists.  Khadijah Sessions had eight assists on the night, while Bianca Cuevas had five assists.  

Despite the solid scoring numbers, it was the defensive statistics that were really impressive.  The Eagles only had seven assists while committing twenty eight turnovers, twenty one of which came on steals by the Gamecocks.  Mitchell had seven steals alone for South Carolina, while Sessions had four steals and Cuevas had three steals and two blocks.  The Gamecocks had eight blocks in the game.  NCCU shot only twenty two percent from the field and were outrebounded 40-23.

The Gamecocks return to action with another home game Thursday night against Charlotte, a team that has lost five straight games after winning their first game.  Add to the fact that the Charlotte men's team defeated the South Carolina men's team in the Charleston Classic about ten days ago and things don't bode well for the 49ers.   

Especially facing this defensive juggernaut in the Gamecocks.

New Season, New Focus

Yesterday's recap of South Carolina's Men's Basketball win over North Florida marks the start of the TENTH season for the College Hardwood. This blog started in December of 2005 and somehow, SOMEHOW, it makes it to a tenth season.

If you told me ten years ago that my site would outlive the Mid Majority, I would have told you "No way."  But the Mid Majority is no more.  As much as I lament the passing of the Mid Majority, there are other many independent blogs and web sites where you can get your daily fill of college basketball coverage, like terrific sites such as Big Apple Buckets and A Daly Dose of Hoops.

And the College Hardwood is also still here.

Over the past ten seasons we've seen CAA NCAA Tournament snubs, George Mason over Hofstra, turn into a Final Four appearance for the Patriots.  We've seen two NCAA Tournament Regionals in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the first, Steph Curry had his coming out party in wins over Gonzaga and Georgetown.   In the second, we saw Mercer make it through "the meat grinder", upsetting Duke in the second round in this season.  We saw VCU grow up before our very own eyes in the 2010-11 season, as they made their own run to the Final Four, which happily resulted in Jay Bilas eating crow.  And there were the fifty eight mid major games I covered in 2011-12 for my site and the Mid Majority.

We've seen a lot, but we've slowed down too.  We now make our home in South Carolina, which has been my place of residence for over two years.   The local trips to Hempstead (Hofstra), New Rochelle (Iona) and Stony Brook have been replaced by the Colonial Life Arena, Davidson, and Spartanburg (Wofford and USC Upstate), albeit not as much.

Life has changed here in the College Hardwood.  I coach both of my sons now in Little League Baseball and the season runs from February to November (two seasons really, spring and fall).   The posts are not as frequent as they used to be.  So if you're wondering why there was no recap of the first day of the NCAA regional from Raleigh, it's because I was coaching and umpiring baseball all day the next day.

Ten seasons is a long time covering college basketball.  This season, the College Hardwood wanted to do something different. As I mentioned, in 2011-12, The College Hardwood had covered fifty eight Division I men's games in a season in conjunction with the Mid Majority's 800 Games Played Project.  But I don't have the time to do that now.

So entering the tenth season, I was looking for some different.  After seven seasons of mid major basketball (men's and women's basketball) and the last two seasons of covering mostly South Carolina men's basketball, with some mid major basketball sprinkled in, I was looking for something else.   And I found it.

The last couple of years being down here in Columbia, South Carolina, I have become quite enamored with the play of the University of South Carolina's Women's Basketball team, coached by Dawn Staley.  The team's play mirrors their coach; a tough minded, extremely talented, defensive oriented team.

When you enter Colonial Life Arena, there are two extremely large posters by each entrance to the seats.  One is of Frank Martin, the Men's Basketball Coach and the other is of Dawn Staley.  Staley has done such an outstanding job that she has put the Women's Basketball team on equal footing with the men, regularly getting crowds over 10,000 (last night's game vs. USC was no exception).

And it's clear when you see the Women's team play of why their crowd's match the men's crowds.  I have seen several USC women's games at Colonial Life, and outside of the men's team's upset of Kentucky last season, the arena has been most alive at the women's games.  And it's easy to see why, in all those games, Staley's team exuded energy through stalwart defense, talent and solid team basketball principles.  

A couple of years ago, the Gamecocks played the Cardinal of Stanford in one of the best defensive college basketball games I ever saw.    Then there was last season's mid November game against my dear friend Tony Bozzella's Seton Hall Pirates, where the Gamecocks pulled away in the second half after only being ahead by two at halftime.   Finally, there was the "Think Pink" Breast Cancer Awareness game where South Carolina used its size advantage to down Florida.

Last season was a great season for South Carolina. The team won the SEC Regular Season Championship, then was the #1 seed in the West Region, where they lost in the Regional Semifinals to North Carolina,   But this season's team looks to be even better than the team from last season.

It's an experienced and talented team that returns all their starters from last season; Aleighsa Welch, Tiffany Mitchell, Khadijah Sessions, Alaina Coates and Elen Ibiam, along with key reserves Tina Roy and Asia Dozier.   What might put the Gamecocks over the top is the addition of A'ja Wilson, one of the most talented high school players in the country.  With all that talent, it is no surprise that South Carolina is ranked #2 in the nation currently.

So when I was given the chance to get USC Women's Basketball Tickets, I jumped at the chance.  And the Gamecocks started their season strong last night, rallying in the second half, winning 70-61. Coates and Mitchell each had eighteen points.  South Carolina played their usual strong defense, holding USC to thirty three percent from the field and out-rebounding the Trojans 42-33.

Alas, I wasn't there to witness their first game last night.  As I previously noted,  life has changed here in the College Hardwood over the past ten seasons and a little more than seven years ago, my younger son hadn't been born yet.  But on November 17, 2007, he was born and yesterday we held a birthday party for Jonny, which included a good number of his baseball teammates.   So Dawn Staley's team took a backseat last night.

But come this Thursday, November 20, I will be seating in my new season ticket seats, along with my partner in basketball mayhem, my color analyst, my older son Matthew.   I very much look forward to watching this Gamecocks Women's team play on a regular basis and providing coverage of the team on a regular basis.

For those of you I call "The Few, The Proud," aka the loyal readers of my site, don't worry. There will still be plenty of men's college basketball games that the College Hardwood will cover, including Tuesday's ESPN 24 Hours of Hoops Game between Baylor and South Carolina.

But in large part, the focus will be the South Carolina Women's Basketball Team.  This season's motto is "One", which is a very accurate description of how they play.

Perhaps "One" will also mean at the end of the season "One" as in "One National Championship".

Gamecocks' Length Too Much for Gators (Recap of Florida v. South Carolina Women's Basketball Game)

The South Carolina Women's Basketball team entered Sunday's "Think Pink" game vs. Florida on a major roll.  Ranked #4 in the country, Dawn Staley's Gamecocks had won eight straight games, six of those by thirteen or more points.  South Carolina leads the SEC in overall scoring margin, outscoring their opponents by a ridiculous twenty plus points per game.

Florida had literally a tall task on Sunday.  The Gamecocks lead the SEC in blocks, averaging over seven per game.  The Gators entered the game as the third leading scoring team in the SEC, averaging over seventy five points per game, shooting forty four percent per game, good for fourth in the conference.  It was offense vs. defense in a game where breast cancer victims were being recognized all throughout the game for their fight against breast cancer.

It was another warm day in Columbia, as my friend Dave, his son Morgan, my son Matthew and I took in the game.  And we were definitely not the only ones taking in the game at Colonial Life Arena.  A crowd of 10,547, the second largest crowd to ever see a women's basketball game in the arena, was there to watch the Gamecocks try for their ninth straight win.

Florida, who hold a season series sweep over #15 Kentucky, came out flying at the start, scoring the first seven points in the game in a little over two minutes.  Cassie Peoples had five of the first seven Gators' points.

But once freshman center Alaina Coates came into the game, the momentum swung.   The Gamecocks would score ten straight points with Coates giving them an 8-7 lead on a layup.  Aleigsha Welch's jumper capped the spurt and put the Gamecocks up three.

More importantly, South Carolina imposed its length on Florida.  In the first six minutes, the Gamecocks had five blocks, two by Coates and two by Elem Ibiam.  As a result, the Gators went nearly eight minutes without a field goal.

Florida finally broke the drought on a Jatera Bonds layup to cut the lead to one, 10-9.  The Gators would keep the game close over the next three and a half minutes.  Peoples would hit a three to keep Florida within two, 19-17 with a little under seven minutes left in the half.

But South Carolina would respond with a 11-1 run over the next five minutes.  The Gamecocks would block another two shots in the span.  Had it not been for three South Carolina turnovers, the spurt might have been larger.   Still, Coates hit one of two free throws to put the Gamecocks up 30-18.  Two Bonds' jumpers cut the lead to eight before Ibiam made two free throws before the end of the half to put South Carolina up 32-22 at halftime.

After a very nice halftime event that recognized fans that had survived breast cancer or had a family member who had breast cancer, the Gamecocks extended their lead to sixteen, 46-30 with a little under thirteen minutes left.  Tiffany Mitchell was responsible for five baskets in the first seven plus minutes of the second half, scoring on three layups and assisting on two other field goals.  It looked like the game was about over.

But Florida refused to quit, outscoring South Carolina 13-3 over the span of seven minutes.  The Gamecocks went ice cold from the field during that span, hitting on only one of ten shot attempts and turning the ball over three times as Florida did a pretty good job of trying to deny the entry pass to the Gamecock bigs.  A Kayla Lewis layup cut the deficit to six, 49-43 with 5:17 left.

But that's as close as Florida got the rest of the way as South Carolina outscored them 20-12 over the last four minutes and forty nine seconds.  Mitchell and Coates scored fourteen of the Gamecocks final twenty points as South Carolina won its ninth game in a row, a hard fought 69-55 contest.

The Gamecocks held the Gators to twenty points under their season scoring average and Florida only shot thirty two percent from the field.  This shouldn't come as a surprise given the Gamecocks lead the SEC in Field Goal Percentage Defense at thirty four percent. South Carolina had eleven blocks in the game and outrebounded Florida 44-29.  Mitchell led the Gamecocks with twenty points and added eight rebounds.  Coates got another double with sixteen points and twelve rebounds. Welsh added twelve points for the Gamecocks.  Bonds led Florida with twenty points and Lewis added fifteen for the Gators.

With the win, the Gamecocks moved to 25-2 and 13-1 in the SEC.  After Texas A&M lost to Kentucky, the Gamecocks clinched at least a tie for the SEC Regular Season Championship, the first in the history of the program. The Gamecocks can win the SEC Regular Season Championship outright with a win over Georgia at home on Thursday, February 27.

Sounds like a good night to watch a team clinch its first outright championship.

Gamecocks Height and Defense Too Much for Wildcats (Recap of Kentucky v. South Carolina Women's Basketball Game)

Starting play Thursday night, six SEC teams were ranked in the Top 25.    Two of those other ranked SEC teams - #9 Kentucky and #10 South Carolina faced each other on Thursday night at Colonial Life Arena.  The Gamecocks were coming off two straight SEC wins, a four point win at Arkansas, which was only the Razorbacks second loss of the season and a ten point home win over Vanderbilt, which was only the third loss on the season for the Commodores.

This was my second South Carolina Women's Basketball game of the season, having seen Dawn Staley's team defeat Seton Hall with a strong second half in their game from earlier in the season.  Thursday night was what I thought was going to be a solo night for me.  My color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, had taken a nap when he got home for school.  Thus he had not done his homework yet, which is my requirement for him joining me for weeknight basketball games.  So I purchased a ticket at the arena, got dinner -cheesesteak, fries and water (hey, had to have something healthy) and sat in a seat as close as I could to the court.

I saw that my friend and fellow former Mid Majority Season 8 writer, Ian McCormick, the king of South Carolina college basketball coverage, tweeted that he was there and I invited him to join me.  Before he got there, a third year USC law student that I know, Courtney, sat in the row in front of me, said hi and we started chatting.  Then Ian joined us, which made for a nice USC basketball community on a Thursday evening.

Going into Thursday night's contest, the Wildcats were the highest scoring team in the SEC, averaging 92 points per game.  And early on, Kentucky was living up to its scoring average, as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead on the Gamecocks.  South Carolina was struggling from the field at the onset missing on four of five field goal attempts and committing four turnovers in the first four minutes.

But once freshman sensation Alaina Coates came into the game, everything changed.  Coates, who Ian once saw score 47 points in a high school game as a ninth grader, dominated the inside defensively for the Gamecocks.  During this time, the Gamecocks clamped down on the Wildcats starting with about fifteen minutes left in the half.  Over the span of twelve and a half minutes, Kentucky was held to two of nineteen from the field.  That got the Gamecock fans energized and into the game. South Carolina fed off the now electric crowd and went on a 19-8 run over the span of twelve and a half minutes and took a 23-18 lead.

The next few minutes saw both teams go back and forth with the Gamecocks holding onto a 25-22 lead.   Then South Carolina scored the next seven points to go up 32-22.  They would maintain that ten point lead at halftime, 34-24.

At halftime, Cocky led a large group of kids in a round of "The Chicken Dance".  It looked like the kids were swarming Cocky, much like the Gamecocks did to the Wildcats over the last fifteen minutes of the first half.  The start of the second wouldn't get any better for Kentucky.

The second half saw the Gamecocks pick up right where they left off, defensively.  This time South Carolina had a block party as they swatted away six shots in the first five and a half minutes of the second half.  The highest scoring team in the SEC was being completely stymied by the taller, stronger Gamecocks.  Coates, Aleigsha Welch and Elem Ibiam were just too much inside for the Wildcats.  South Carolina would set a team record fourteen blocks in the game, six by Ibiam.

The result was a 20-8 run by the Gamecocks over the first eleven and a half minutes as they took a commanding 54-32 lead.  . During the run, Welch scored seven points while Ibiam contributed five points.  When the Gamecocks went up twenty two, while there was only an announced crowd of about 5700 for the game, it was by far the loudest crowd I had heard all season, either for women's or men's games.

But you can only keep a high scoring team like Kentucky for so long. They would respond with a 19-5 run in a little over five minutes to cut the deficit to eight, 59-51.  The Wildcats would score on eight straight possessions and were abetted by eight missed free throws by the Gamecocks.   South Carolina was only fourteen of twenty five from the charity stripe.

But Kentucky would get no closer as Tiffany Mitchell would hit two free throws and off a Wildcats turnover, Olivia Gaines would score on a layup to put the Gamecocks up 63-51. Kentucky would get it back down to eight, but another Coates layup and two more Mitchell free throws put the lead again back up to twelve.   The Gamecocks would eventually win 68-59.

Mitchell led all Gamecocks' scorers with seventeen points.  Welch and Coates each had a double double on the night.  Welch had sixteen points and fourteen rebounds, while Coates had ten points and seventeen rebounds.  Tina Roy added eleven points for South Carolina who outrebounded Kentucky 53-43 and outscored the Wildcats 20-11 on second chance points.

Kentucky also had four players in double figures as Asia Bishop led the Wildcats with a double double, twelve points and eleven rebounds.  Samarie Walker and Janee Thompson each had twelve points and DeNesha Stallworth added eleven points.

With the win, South Carolina moved to 3-0 in conference tied with unranked Florida for first place.  Meanwhile, Kentucky falls to 1-2. Things will not get any easier for either team in conference.  #25 Georgia, which entered SEC play with only one loss,  lost its third straight game to start the conference season at unranked Missouri.   There are no easy games in the SEC, especially with eleven teams with twelve or more wins.