On a night where fans were encouraged to wear pajamas and bring teddy bears, South Carolina women’s basketball put Duke to bed early.

South Carolina’s annual teddy bear toss game had the sleepy vibes with a 9 p.m. tip-off, but the showdown against No. 8 Duke in the ACC/SEC challenge made it the first truly big game on a loaded home slate this year.

And although it got a little bit wobbly in the fourth quarter, South Carolina was in control all night. The Gamecocks won 81-70 after leading by as many as 25 early in the second half.

No. 3 South Carolina (8-1) stormed out to a 12-4 lead before the game was even four minutes old, spurred on by an aggressive, attacking Raven Johnson. The starting point guard had her best start to a game all year, picking up two assists and knocking down a corner 3-pointer in the opening stages to set the tone for the game.

Chloe Kitts picked up her 14-point, nine-rebound performance against Duke (8-2) last year and turned it up another gear, coasting to a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double and looking unguardable for most of the night. She tied her career-high and scoring and had the most crucial offensive sequence of the game, stemming the tide of an early fourth quarter run.

In a lot of ways, it looked like last year’s trip to Durham. Mathematically speaking, it was. For the second year in a row, Duke shaved 15 points off a South Carolina lead in the second half. Last year it was to tie the game while trailing by exactly 15, this time the blazing start bought the Gamecocks a little breathing room.

And just like last year, Kitts sent Duke packing.

Her back-to-back layups snapped a stretch of over four minutes without a made field goal, put some juice back in the home crowd and took the sails out of what was a spirited Duke rally.

For most of the game it looked like any kind of fourth quarter work would not be needed, though. The Gamecocks put up 51 points in arguably their best half of the season, scoring in multiple different ways and doing so efficiently. Tessa Johnson and Maddy McDaniel were both efficient off the dribble and found creases in the Duke defense, and Sania Feagin scored 11 points.

South Carolina will have another top-10 match-up this Sunday, this time on the road as it travels to No. 9 TCU.

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