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.

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.