Late in the game against Tennessee Tech, outcome as solidified as any in the NCAA Tournament ever will be, Tessa Johnson grabbed a defensive rebound. She let out her patented ear-to-ear smile as she dribbled the ball back up the floor with South Carolina leading 98-43.

Why such a big grin for a seemingly mundane play in a 55-point game? It was her fifth rebound of the game, extending her personal lead over MiLaysia Fulwiley in the category to 5-1 on the day. Fulwiley grabbed one more — her 100th of the season — but could not make a comeback.

This was another day in the personal rebounding contest between Johnson and Fulwiley, a game the two sophomores started playing as a way to help both of them get better on the glass.

“I’ve had to learn that if my shot’s not falling I have to go do something else out there,” Johnson said. “I’ve been working on it this whole season, because I wasn’t really rebounding as much. I was thinking, ‘I’m a guard, I don’t have to rebound as much, we have good rebounders.’ But I’ve been emphasizing it, and me and Lay do a competition in practice and in games.”

The rules are pretty simple, if you can even call them rules. In practice, whoever grabs more rebounds in five-on-five action wins the day. No individual drills or skill work counts. Self-counting, of course. In games, they can just look up at the scoreboard and see who has the lead.

South Carolina is ninth in the country in rebounding as a team, aided in no small part by its backcourt players. This year without Kamilla Cardoso in the middle to soak up all the rebounds, everyone else had to pick up the slack in terms of rebounding.

Heading into the second round of the tournament Fulwiley is on an even 100 boards for the season, and Johnson has 68. Both players insist it is close in practice, but say they have the upper hand.

Luckily they have officials, their teammates who are very aware of the game.

“Tessa low key gets her,” Te-Hina Paopao said. “Lay has been doing a good job, but I think I’ve got Tessa.”

Of course size helps on the glass, but so much of rebounding always comes down to effort. The desire to chase down a loose ball, the focus to track how a shot is going to carom off the rim and the grit to out-muscle an opposing player for a 50/50 ball in the air.

Come NCAA Tournament time, everyone is locked in. The looming specter of elimination basketball with the possibility of a championship is enough to keep anyone sharp. But the entire season, through non-conference blowouts, grueling practices and days where it would be easy to check out mentally, this rebounding competition has kept both focused on the glass.

Johnson is listed at an even six feet tall, Fulwiley checks in at five-foot-10, and you would never know it when a missed shot comes up in the air.

“It’s helped us both a lot,” Fulwiley said. “It’s a friendly competition. It just motivates us to do the things that guards don’t really want to do.”

Everyone else loves watching it, too. It’s a win-win situation for the Gamecocks, where both players push for rebounds and everyone else gets to enjoy the show, and occasionally remind them of what the other player is up to.

“I kind of forget about it in the game,” Fulwiley said. “Then Sakima [Walker] will be like, ‘Oh, Tessa just got a rebound. Our teammates are in on it, too, and they keep us updated.”

Any chance it extends out to other statistical categories? Probably not, if Johnson has any say in it.

“Today I think Tessa got more,” Paopao said. “And then Lay was like, ‘I’ve got four blocks.’ Tessa was like, ‘I can’t compete in that category, so we’ll just stay with rebounds.’”

Rebounding it is, and the only question is who will grab more.

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