Sessions' Late Free Throw Allows South Carolina to Survive Texas A&M

After a heavy morning rain, the clouds subsided and the sun came out in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, just in time for the Gamecocks to face the #15 Aggies of Texas A&M,  It was the third game of an eleven game gauntlet for South Carolina where they face nine ranked teams over the span, including finishing up with five ranked teams in a row.

Sun, Jan 10 - 83-58 win over #20 Missouri

Thu, Jan 14 - 73-62 win at #9 Kentucky

Sun, Jan 17 vs #15 Texas A&M

Thu, Jan 21 @ Auburn

Sun, Jan 24 @ #7 Mississippi State

Thu, Jan 28 vs Ole Miss

Sun, Jan 31 @ #15 Texas A&M

Thu, Feb 4 vs #9 Kentucky

Mon, Feb 8 vs #1 Connecticut

Thu, Feb 11 vs #20 Florida

Mon, Feb 15 @ #13 Tennessee

That's not a schedule for the faint of heart. The crowd of 15,406 that packed Colonial Life Arena for the 12:30 PM EST was ready for the third game in this brutal stretch of games for the #2 Gamecocks. So were the #15 Aggies.

Before the game started, South Carolina Junior Center Alaina Coates was awarded a ball for scoring her 1000th career point in the home win over Missouri a week ago.  Coates had a double double in the win over the Tigers.

Texas A&M, similar to #20 Missouri when they played the South Carolina, came out physical against the Gamecocks.  However, unlike the Tigers, the Aggies matched their physicality with athleticism and hot shooting.  Behind guard Courtney Walker's hot shooting, Texas A&M jumped out to a quick 13-6 lead.  

But South Carolina responded with a 10-0 run over the next five plus minutes. Tiffany Mitchell had four points and an assist during that spurt, which was capped by a Coates layup to put the Gamecocks up 16-13.  But Texas A&M responded with the last four points of the quarter to take a 17-16 lead. 

In the second quarter, the teams traded leads six times over the ten minute period.  After A'ja Wilson gave South Carolina a 26-25 lead, Wilson followed up with a block of a Courtney Williams layup attempt on the other end.  It appeared that the Gamecocks would run down the clock for the last shot in the second quarter, but Khadijah Sessions dribbled into traffic and Walker stole the ball and went the length of the court, laying the ball in before the buzzer sounded.  Texas A&M was up 27-26 at the half.

It was clearly a test of wills in the first half as Texas A&M collapsed on the South Carolina bigs, Wilson and Coates.  But Coach Dawn Staley continued to have the Gamecocks work the ball inside, knowing the high percentage shot is usually the best shot.  

So while the Aggies were able to bottle up Coates the whole game, Wilson became their go to player. That's due in part that the six foot four Wilson is so athletic, she can take the ball from the free throw line and drive to the basket.  She scored the Gamecocks last eight points in the first half.  And the game plan didn't change at the start of the second half as Wilson scored the first six points for the Gamecocks.   Her layup put South Carolina up 32-29.    Coates followed with a layup of her own and the score was 34-29.

But Texas A&M once again was resilient, as they responded with an 8-0 spurt.  Jordan Jones was responsible for six of those points, a three pointer and an old fashioned three point play, which gave the Aggies a 36-34 lead.  Chelsea Jennings capped the run with a layup and the Aggies led 38-34.  But Sessions responded with a layup of her own to cut the deficit to two to end the third quarter.

Sessions' layup would be the start of a 9-2 run for the Gamecocks.  Wilson and Mitchell would each hit two free throws and then Bianca Cuevas buried a three pointer to put South Carolina up 43-40.  A few minutes later, a Sessions layup would extend the lead to four, 46-42.   However, Jordan Jones would nail a three pointer and follow with a layup to put A&M back in front 47-46 with a little over six minutes left in the game.

But once again, the Gamecocks responded with another 9-2 spurt.  It started with a Cuevas three point play and ended with Wilson scoring the last three points on a layup, then later by hitting one of two free throws.  Colonial Life Arena was rocking as South Carolina went up 55-49 with two and a half minutes left in the game.

The Aggies would not quit, cutting the lead to two, 55-53 with Anriel Howard and Walker assisting each other on baskets.  However Wilson would respond with a layup and one.  She missed the free throw though and the Gamecocks were back up four 57-53 with 1:14 left in the game.

South Carolina would have chances to put the game away.  But Mitchell turned the ball over with about 30 seconds left in the game.  Walker would hit two free throws after on foul on Sessions to cut the deficit to two, 57-55 with twenty seconds left.  

After getting fouled, Mitchell had a chance to possibly put the game away but missed both free throw attempts.   A&M had a chance to tie with four seconds left but Jones missed a free throw of her own.  Jones hit the second and the score was 57-56.  The Aggies fouled Sessions, who missed the first free throw but hit the second to put the Gamecocks up two, 58-56 with three seconds left.  We now had the setup for one of the wildest endings to any basketball game this season.

Off the inbounds pass, the Aggies' Taylor Cooper was able to find Jennings on an outlet pass and she was able to lay the ball in to tie the game at 58 with one second.  But with the game tied, on the South Carolina inbounds pass Texas A&M's Shlonte Allen, who was seeing her first minutes of the game, inexplicably grabbed Sessions as she was trying to drive down the court.   Allen was called for the foul, and lucky for A&M's head coach Gary Blair, Allen wasn't called for an intentional foul, as she made no attempt to go after the ball.   The brain freeze on Allen resulted in two free throw attempts for Sessions to win the game with .8 seconds left.

However, Sessions added to the excitement of the finish by missing the first free throw.  With the crowd imploring her, Sessions hit the second free throw to put South Carolina up 59-58.  Mitchell would then steal the desperation inbounds pass at mid court and the Gamecocks held on for a truly exciting 59-58 victory.

Wilson was dominant the entire game for the Gamecocks and nearly had a triple double with twenty six points, eight rebounds and eight blocks.  Mitchell was the only other South Carolina player in double figures scoring with eleven points.  Cuevas had nine points, Sessions added eight and Coates was held to five points, though she had eleven rebounds.

The three guard attack for Texas A&M - Jones, Walker and Jennings each scored in double figures and combined for forty seven of the Aggies' fifty eight points.  The Aggies actually out-rebounded the Gamecocks 43-33, which included seventeen offensive rebounds.

The Gamecocks survived the third game of their gauntlet and now go on the road to face Auburn, a pretty respectable 12-6 team with a 2-3 conference record.  One of those wins was earlier in the conference season over #7 Kentucky.  

Such is the life in the SEC.  Even the unranked teams are pretty darn good.

South Carolina's Strong Defensive Start Dooms Missouri

The #20 Missouri Tigers had to be telling themselves yesterday, "If we can come out strong against South Carolina, we've got a chance to win."   In the Gamecocks last several games, especially against SEC conference foes Arkansas and Vanderbilt, #2 South Carolina struggled out of the gate.  Against the Razorbacks, the Gamecocks were tied at nine after one quarter.  Against the Commodores, the Gamecocks were tied at halftime and were losing late in the third quarter before rallying to win.

So it only seemed natural for the Tigers to feel a strong start would go a long way.  During warm-ups, my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, noted that Missouri seemed to have a lot of players practicing, more than South Carolina (two bench players have the left the Gamecocks in the last week, leaving them with eleven players, still plenty given their talent).   Matthew and I would find out within a few minutes of game action why that was the case.

As for the Tigers hoping for a sluggish start from their opponent, too bad Dawn Staley had her Gamecocks ready from the get go.

The home crowd of 15,934 that packed Colonial Life Arena yesterday seemed to pump life into South Carolina from tip-off.   The Gamecocks height and athleticism on defense frustrated the Tigers immediately in the first quarter.  In the first seven and a half minutes of the first quarter, Missouri missed all thirteen shots from the field and turned the ball over four times.

Meanwhile, it was obvious what Missouri's game plan was on defense.  Physical defense that would have made Bruiser Flint proud.  They picked up seven fouls in the first five and half plus minutes in the game.  My color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, commented that we were going to see at least one Missouri player foul out and noted "So that's why they have so many players!"

Meanwhile, South Carolina was able to slog their way through Missouri's physical play to score enough points to make a difference early on.  Alaina Coates hit a three point play to put the Gamecocks up to stay 3-0.  Neither team would score for the next three plus minutes as the Gamecocks missed on five straight shots. Finally,  Khadijah Sessions would score on four free throws, sandwiching a three point play by Tiffany Mitchell and a free throw from Alaina Coates.  South Carolina was up 11-0 with four plus minutes left in the first quarter.

During this time, Missouri Freshman Sophie Cunningham "enamored" herself with the Gamecocks fans due to her physical play, especially one fan behind us in Section 115.  That fan kept yelling at the top of her lungs "SOOOPHIE!", among other things.

Missouri finally made a basket from Kayla Robinson nearly eight minutes into the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 17-5.

The Tigers came out scoring in the second quarter with five quick points, including a three pointer by Maddie Stock to cut the lead to ten, 20-10.   But the Gamecocks would respond with a 13-2 run over the next nearly five minutes. Mitchell would lead the way, scoring six of those thirteen points.  Her two free throws would cap the run and make the score 33-12.   South Carolina would end up leading at halftime 35-17.  Missouri almost had as many fouls, SIXTEEN, as points, seventeen.

The start of the second half saw Missouri come out strong from the locker room.   The Tigers outscored the Gamecocks 12-4 over the first minute and a half.  Sophie Cunningham continued to ingratiate herself with the Gamecock faithful, scoring a basket to cut the lead to ten 39-29.

After a Coates basket that put South Carolina up twelve, Mitchell took over from there.  She scored the next seven straight points; a layup assisted by Tina Roy, a three pointer again assisted by Roy and then finally, she took matters in her own hands.  Mitchell stole the ball and drove in for a layup.  The Gamecocks were back up nineteen 48-29 and the game was over for all intensive purposes.

Except for the fan that was "enamored" with Sophie Cunningham.  Sophie would pick up her third foul midway through the third quarter, which ended with South Carolina up 56-34.  In the fourth quarter, she would quickly pick up fouls four and five which resulted in our fan yelling "BYE SOPHIE!!"

As Matt had predicted, a Missouri player fouled out.  In fact, two fouled out, as Jordan Frericks fouled out later.  Missouri would use THIRTEEN players in the game, as the entire team picked up thirty four fouls.  South Carolina took full advantage, hitting on thirty two of their forty three free throw attempts in the 83-58 drubbing of Missouri.

Mitchell led all scorers with nineteen points, shooting eight of nine from the free throw line. Coates and Wilson each had double doubles.  Coates had thirteen points and twelve rebounds, while Wilson had eleven points, eleven rebounds and six blocks.  Jatarie White came off the bench for the Gamecocks and added eleven points.
Missouri was held to thirty one percent from the field, including four of twenty one from beyond the arc, as South Carolina's overall team height and quickness were too much for the Tigers.  Only Ciera Porter was in double figures scoring for Missouri with ten points.

With the win, the Gamecocks are now 15-0 on the season and have matched the #22 undefeated men's team in record.   Both teams are now a combined 30-0 on the season, a truly remarkable fact given conference play for men's and women's basketball is already a week old.

The schedule doesn't get any easier for South Carolina.  They play another two ranked teams in a row.  First, a road match-up with #10 Kentucky and then a home game vs. #13 Texas A&M.  

But if they come out and play defense as well as they did against #20 Missouri, it won't matter who they play. The Gamecocks look primed for another SEC conference championship.

A strong start always helps.

Despite Offensive Struggles, Gamecocks Pull Away From Pirates

In the ten years that I have been covering college basketball, I find that final scores, whether in men's or women's college basketball, are often deceiving.  Such is the case with last night's 86-48 win by South Carolina over Hampton in women's college basketball action at Colonial Life Arena.

Coming off a very impressive 86-37 win over Winthrop on Sunday, which included the Gamecocks leading at the half 47-13 over an Eagles team with a similar record at 2-7, you would think they would not have much trouble with a 1-7 Pirates team that lost five of its seven games by twenty one points or more.

But that's why the game is played and not left to statistical programs.

After an awards ceremony for Coach Dawn Staley, A'ja Wilson, who was sitting again due to nagging injuries, Alaina Coates and Tiffany Mitchell for their play for USA National Teams in the offseason. the Gamecocks started the game out scoring six of their first eight points on free throws, including four by Mitchell, and took an 8-0 lead.   It took the Pirates about four minutes and ten seconds into the first quarter before Malia Tate-DeFreitas hit a basket to make the score 8-2.   South Carolina would answer back scoring six of the next eight points to take a 14-4 lead with about three and a half minutes left in the quarter.  It looked like Hampton would suffer a similar fate to Winthrop, who was outscored 26-7 in the first quarter on Sunday.

Then a funny thing happened.   Hampton showed why they made the second round of the Women's NIT last season, using quickness to create extra possessions for them.  The Pirates would force three Gamecocks turnovers and score the next five points to cut the deficit to 14-9, holding South Carolina scoreless the rest of the quarter.

The Gamecocks seemed frustrated on offense.  Seemingly easy layups just went off the rim,  In one first half possession, the Gamecocks fired two consecutive jumpers off the backboard never hitting a rim.  Even a three point attempt from the corner hit the side of the backboard.  Staley was none too pleased with her offense in the first half of the game.

The second quarter saw the Gamecocks starting to pull away as they went on a 14-2 run over the first six and a half minutes to take a 28-11 lead.  Much of that scoring was due to Coates, who worked hard to free herself from the Pirates defense to score six of those points.   Now it looked like the Gamecocks had finally shaken off the offensive cobwebs.

But once again, South Carolina went into a drought as the Pirates continued to play hard on the defensive end.  Hampton would hold South Carolina to two points in the last three and a half minutes of the second quarter, while scoring seven points of their own in that span.  The Gamecocks only led 30-18 after shooting just 30 percent in the first half.

After a halftime show that featured Cocky doing the Chicken Dance, the Gamecocks started on offense much like the men's basketball team did at the start of the second half vs. Drexel on Tuesday night.  South Carolina hit their first four field goal attempts, including two three pointers and a layup by Mitchell and one by Khadijah Sessions.  Interspersed with those field goals were four three throws, including a free throw on a three point play on the layup by Mitchell.  The Gamecocks extended their lead to nineteen, 45-26.

After a three point play by Tate-DeFreitas cut the lead back to sixteen, 45-29, the Gamecocks would extend the lead over the five final minutes of the quarter to take a 59-38 lead after three quarters.  The Gamecocks nearly scored as many points in the third quarter, twenty nine, than they did in the first twenty minutes of the first half.  They did this despite committing seven turnovers in the quarter.  They also extended their lead despite Hampton scoring more points in the third quarter, twenty, than they did in the first half.   What helped was that South Carolina shot seven of eight from the field in the third quarter.

The Gamecocks continued their hot shooting in the fourth quarter, scoring twenty seven more points while holding the Pirates to ten.   The Gamecocks shot seventy two percent in the second half in rout to the final score of 86-48, which looked a lot easier that it actually was for South Carolina.  Hampton, in playing a tough schedule that included #8 Texas, undefeated Oregon, defending CAA champion James Madison and Iowa State, held their own for a good thirty minutes.

Coming off her triple double against Winthrop, Coates had to settle for a double double with twenty two points and twelve rebounds.  Sarah Imovbioh added nineteen points and seven rebounds, while Mitchell chipped in with seventeen points and six rebounds.  South Carolina nearly had as many offensive rebounds, eighteen, as Hampton had total rebounds, nineteen.  The Gamecocks outrebounded the Pirates 52-19.  Tate-DeFreitas led the Pirates with fourteen while Ryan Jordan had nine points.

South Carolina takes their 10-0 record on the road to East Carolina for a game in Myrtle Beach on Sunday, before one last home non conference game against Elon next week before SEC conference play starts in the new year.   They certainly should have Wilson back by conference play.

By resting Wilson,  Staley has been able to reach into her bench and ten of her players played eight minutes or more last night.  That will give them experience heading into SEC games where four of the other teams are ranked; #8 Kentucky, #9 Mississippi State, #14 Tennessee and #18 Texas A&M.  Plus you have 10-0 Missouri, 9-1 Georgia, 9-1 Florida and 8-2 Vanderbilt waiting for the Gamecocks as well.

Hope Wilson has got a lot of rest.  She's going to need it come January.

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.

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.