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.

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.

Old Friends, New Homes (Recap of Seton Hall vs. South Carolina Women's Basketball Game)

In August of 2012, I accepted a position at the University of South Carolina School of Law.  After forty six plus years of living on Long Island, I made the biggest move of my life and left for Columbia, South Carolina. It's only been fifteen months, but my family and I are truly happy here. It was a move that worked out for the best.

In late March of this year, Tony Bozzella accepted the Women's Head Basketball Coach position at Seton Hall.  In Coach Bozzella's case, he was coming back home to his alma mater after eleven seasons at Iona.  It was while at Seton Hall that he first started his coaching career as the head coach of St. Mary's High School, now known as Cardinal McCarrick, in South Amboy, New Jersey.  But that was not the most important part of his undergraduate years at Seton Hall.    The most important part was meeting there his future wife, Maria, who is also a Seton Hall graduate.

For Coach Bozzella, Seton Hall is just another in the list of reclamation projects he has overseen in his twenty one years as a head coach.   His first job was SUNY Southampton, where he took a perennial doormat ECAC team and took them to six straight winning seasons.  Then he received his first Division I head coaching position at LIU Brooklyn.  In his very first season there, he guided the Blackbirds to their first ever NEC Tournament Championship and their only ever NCAA Tournament appearance.  In his second and final season, he took LIU Brooklyn to the championship game before losing to St. Francis PA.

Then he took the head coaching position at Iona College.  Over his eleven seasons there, he led Iona in 2005-06 to their first ever winning season in twenty three years. In 2006-07, he guided Iona to their first ever postseason appearance, a WNIT bid.  He would take the Gaels to three more WNIT appearances and in his last seven seasons with Iona, the Gaels had an 85-56 MAAC conference record.

Bozzella has always had a sense of family and loyalty as far as his coaching staff.   His Iona coaching staff has been made up over the years of former players for Southampton, LIU Brooklyn and Iona.  His Seton Hall coaching staff is no exception.  Lauren DeFalco, a former star guard at Iona, Melissa Flagg, another former starting Iona Gael guard and Timothy Gardner served as assistants for him at Iona.

When I found out that Coach Bozzella's Pirates were going to be in Columbia to face the Gamecocks on November 17, it was the genesis of what turned out to be a  three day sports weekend for our group of friends.  As I noted in my previous post, my friends Mal and Tieff flew down Friday morning and we spent Friday night in Charleston watching UNC Asheville defeat the College of Charleston in overtime.  We were then joined on Saturday by our friend Den Bashuk and his friend Neal to watch SEC Football as South Carolina rallied at home to defeat Florida.

Sunday was not only a big day for my friends, but for me personally.  November 17 also happened to be my younger son Jonathan's sixth birthday.  He woke up about 7:00 AM and not too long after, we were opening his birthday presents.  Later, my entire family met up with my friends for brunch at Liberty Tap House and then we made our way to Colonial Life Arena.  Once there, we joined up with Maria and the rest of the Bozzella family, Samantha and Joseph and caught up on old times.

Seton Hall had won their first three games, the latest being an impressive 78-61 win over Weber State last Friday night.  However, on Sunday the Pirates were missing three of their starters - Bra'Shey Ali, Alexis Brown and Sidney Cook, all due to injuries.  They were facing the #21 team in the country in Dawn Staley's  3-0 Gamecocks on their home court, a tall order even for a fully healthy team.

South Carolina started the scoring on two free throws by Elem Ibiam, as Gamecocks shooting free throws would be a consistent story line throughout the game.  However in another consistent story line, Tabatha Richardson-Smith buried a three pointer to put Seton Hall up one.  Two free throws by forward Tiffany Webb would put the Pirates up three, 7-4.

South Carolina responded with two free throws by Khadijah Sessions, another free throw by freshman sensation Alaina Coates and a three point play by Ibiam to go up 10-7.  Seton Hall would answer as Richardson Smith would tie the game at thirteen with another three pointer.  Then after Aleighsa Welch would put the Gamecocks ahead again with another free throw, Ka-Deidre Simmons hit a jumper to put the Pirates back up one, 15-14.  Simmons would hit another jumper to give Seton Hall an 18-16 lead.

However, the foul toll was mounting on short handed Seton Hall.  In barely a little more than ten minutes, the Pirates had fourteen fouls. Janee Johnson already had three fouls with 10:45 left in the first half.  Bozzella, who was only dressing nine players, used his entire bench in the first half, basically out of necessity.

And yet not only did the Pirates hang in there against the talented, taller Gamecocks, they actually rallied from a late six point first half deficit with 7-0 mini spurt, capped by another basket by Richardson-Smith to put Seton Hall up 39-38 with about a minute left.  Asia Dozier would answer for South Carolina with a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up two.  Simmons missed on a jumper at the buzzer but the Pirates were only down two, 41-39 at the half.

Seton Hall actually hit six more shots on fourteen more attempts in the first half than the Gamecocks including five of nine from beyond the arc. But the Gamecocks went to the line in the first half more than most teams do in a game with twenty seven attempts.  South Carolina hit on twenty one of those free throw attempts, seventeen more than Seton Hall (four of five from the line).

During halftime of South Carolina Women's Basketball games, kids can dance with Cocky on the court. Jonathan had a chance to celebrate his birthday by dancing as well.  He decided he didn't want to go out there.  Then I found out why; he was tired from being up early that morning.  A short while later, he was asleep in his seat.

At the beginning of the second half, Dozier picked up right where she left off with another three pointer. It would start a 16-4 run, culminated by two Tiffany Mitchell three pointers and a Sessions layup to put the Gamecocks up 57-43 with 14:23 left in the game. It looked like the Hall was about to be blown out of Colonial Life Arena.

But the Pirates refused to quit and came back with a 10-4 spurt.  Richardson-Smith would score another five points and a Simmons layup would cut the South Carolina lead to eight, 61-53 with eleven minutes left.  Seton Hall was only down ten, 64-54 with ten minutes left.

But the Gamecocks size and post play was too much for the Pirates.  After Seton Hall was still within eleven, 72-61 with about six and a half minutes left,  Ibiam went to work.  She would score the next seven Gamecocks points, on three short jumpers in the post and a free throw.  It would swell to an eventual 12-2 run that put South Carolina up 84-63.  The Gamecocks would go onto win 88-67.

The Gamecocks shot an impressive nearly seventy four percent from the field in the second half, hitting seventeen of twenty three shots.  The Pirates actually had as many field goals, twenty six and as many three pointers, six, as the Gamecocks.  However, South Carolina had twenty one more free throws than Seton Hall and that was the difference in the game.  

As the game was ending, I heard Coach Bozzella turn to his bench and say "Good Effort".  Considering he was missing three starters, his team was only down two points at the half and were only down ten with ten minutes left, it was a good effort.  The Gamecocks were just too strong in the paint for the shorthanded Pirates, who only committed eight turnovers on the game (South Carolina only committed eleven turnovers).

The Gamecocks had five players in double figures in scoring.  Ibiam led the way with eighteen points, Sessions added seventeen, while Welch and Mitchell each had fifteen and Coates added ten points. Richardson-Smith led Seton Hall and all scorers with twenty four points while Simmons added nineteen.

We said our goodbyes to Maria, Samantha and Joseph, along with Mal and Tieff.  We couldn't stay because Jonathan wanted to have his birthday dinner at his favorite place...McDonalds (hey, he is only six).  Plus I knew I would see them again later next month when they play at St John's during our Christmas in New York vacation.

It was good to see an old friend who was able to go back home to his alma mater.  For Tony Bozzella, considering his track record, it will be for the best too.