Issues, solutions and more as Gamecocks still 'trying to get our footing'

South Carolina women’s basketball did what it usually does, using its depth to put away an overmatched opponent and turn an early close game into a laugher. The details of this latest win — number 43 in a row for the program — spell out a 77-45 road win at rival Clemson, a somewhat flattering score following an uneven performance.

Clemson (2-2) led 17-12 midway through the second quarter before a furious Gamecock rally flipped the game on its head, a 23-0 run wrapping around halftime to put the game out of reach.

But the initial spurt, a sluggish, frustrating quarter and a half of basketball where the No. 1 team in the country scored six points excluding transition baskets, was the worst stretch of an already uneven start to the season.

Just as it did in each of the prior four games, though, the offense improved as the night wore on.

Is there reason to think the same trend will carry over in the big picture?

."I think our defense is probably a little bit better than our offense right now," Dawn Staley said. "That's not a bad place to be. Because we know we can hit shots."

In this case, the shots in question were layups. The Gamecocks missed a dozen in the first 15 minutes, several of them good looks at the basket. On one hand they were doing the right things, working into good positions and setting up opportunities.

On the other, the scoreboard doesn’t play. And it shows a sluggish offensive start for this team in four of its first five games.

The issues are far from singular on one player, but point guard Raven Johnson has had a particularly slow start to the campaign. Johnson is now 7-of-35 from the floor and 0-of-13 from 3-point range to start her season after a sluggish 2-of-7 showing at Littlejohn Coliseum. Even worse right now is the assists which usually serve as the engine to this offense — she had 17 against Clemson last year — have dried up. Through five games, Johnson has just 12 total assists.

“I don't think she's forcing anything,” Staley said. “She's taking good shots. If she's not pressing her way into bad shots, I'm okay."

In its continued search for easy bread-and-butter offense without Kamilla Cardoso, South Carolina (5-0) might have found something with its dribble-drive game Wednesday. The 23-0 run started when Bree Hall and Te-Hina Paopao forced their way inside on back-to-back strong drives to the rim, and scored six straight buckets on layups through the middle of the run.

“We knew that we had to keep attacking,” Paopao said. “It felt like when we got in the paint it was like a Red Sea, it parted. The coaches kept telling us to attack. If the perimeter shots aren’t falling, you’ve got to attack the paint.”

So what is the solution? South Carolina will hit the court next for one of its biggest games of the season, a top-5 showdown at UCLA on Sunday afternoon, and even with the final score getting lopsided, the offense still looks anywhere from slightly dysfunctional to completely broken at times.

For most of the first half Wednesday, you would never know these were the defending champs.

Of course, shooting percentages should level out as the season goes on. Likewise, you would expect Johnson to find her mojo sooner than later. But a developing option could be true freshman Maddy McDaniel.

At this time last week, she was the fifth guard on the roster and still hadn’t played a minute while recovering from a knee injury. Three solid performances stacked in a row, and she looks like someone capable of pushing the envelope.

“Maddy is as solid as solid can be,” Staley said. “She is running our basketball team, she is picking and choosing opportunities to score, she is facilitating, she is defending. She is gaining more and more confidence, so if she continues to play like this, we’re going to continue to find time for her. I’m overjoyed with her play.”

McDaniel represents not only a path for this offense to improve, but some perspective. Seasons are long, and narratives change quickly. Johnson is still one breakout game at UCLA or next week in the Fort Myers Invitational away from her first five games becoming a distant memory.

Nobody is panicking yet. After all, they are 5-0, and the offense has improved as every game has worn on.

"We're just still trying to get our footing,” Staley said. “They're getting better. They are getting better, and I have no doubt that we'll start clicking."

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