After a 21-day stretch that saw six games—three against ranked opponents and three on the road—the South Carolina women’s basketball team got a breather. It came in the form of an almost two-week break, giving the Gamecocks a chance to do some self-reflecting before entering conference play.
“We definitely knew that offensively we were pretty solid but defensively we had to put stops together, put defensive possessions together just as well as we put offensive possessions together,” guard Kaela Davis said.
They spent the next week and a half practicing without having to focus on an opponent, putting an added emphasis on defending. It’s worked so far as the fifth-ranked Gamecocks have stifled their first two SEC opponents—Alabama and Auburn—to start 2-0 in conference for the fourth straight year.
“The key is practice,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “We’ve been able to have a lot of practices where we strung together just concentrating and focusing on that side of the ball. Our players are believing in it, they’re seeing a difference in their energy level and their impact on that side of the ball.”
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The Gamecocks are allowing 46 points per game to start conference play, allowing opponents to shoot just 27.4 percent (32-for-117) from the field. They’ve outscored their conference opponents by an average of 37 points, clubbing Alabama 93-45 in the opening SEC game.
The Tide and Tigers combined to go 5-for-34 from behind the arc thanks to smothering on-the-ball defense from guards Bianca Cuevas-Moore, Alisha Gray and Davis.
“This is the type of team where if you give them something to improve on, they focus on it. We just got to hold their feet under the fire to continue that,” Staley said. They have a hard time sustaining. Once they got it, they say, ‘Oh, I got it. I got this. I can turn it on and off.’ Where as coaches we want it on all the time so we don’t have to wait until they think it’s time to turn it on.”
Now, the Gamecocks (12-1, 2-0 SEC) turn their attention to Florida, where they will play their second-straight road game Sunday (noon, ESPNU). The Gators (9-6, 2-0 SEC) are coming off back-to-back wins over Auburn and LSU to start the conference slate, scoring at least 75 points in both games.
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Staley said the Gamecocks need to control the tempo against a fast-paced Gator team if they want to win the game, with focus narrowing on forwards Ronni Williams and Haley Lorenzen who combine for 31.5 points per game.
The two also average 15.1 rebounds per game as the Gators have an average plus-eight rebounding advantage this season.
“That was our thing with Auburn,” Davis said. “We know their guards were about 70 percent of their offense, so with forwards it’s the same thing. If that’s our focus, then we have to make sure we zone in on them and limit their touches and points.”
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With a win, Staley would notch win No. 201 at South Carolina and the Gamecocks would start 3-0 for the fifth time in her nine seasons in Columbia. It’ll take a good defensive effort against a team averaging 75.6 points per game, but Davis and Staley both think this is the best stretch of defense the Gamecocks have played all season.
“We started off a little rough, but that’s something we’ve been working on,” Davis said. “We’re realizing that if we can put possessions together, put games together, that’s going to help us in the long run.”