AUSTIN, Texas — The only thing over is the SEC winning streak.
South Carolina women’s basketball lost its first SEC regular season game since Dec. 30, 2021, a 66-62 thriller at Texas. For as much of a cliche as it always is, a narrow February loss does not change the fact this has all of its goals in front of it.
If the Gamecocks win out in their final five conference games, they will claim another SEC regular season title. If they do so they will be, at worst pending a coin flip, the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament and have an excellent chance to win that. And of course, everything is still on the table for the NCAA Tournament and the quest to win a fourth National Championship.
“The law of averages says at some point somebody is going to get you,” Dawn Staley said. “I’m just glad they didn’t get us where we can’t survive. We still control our own destiny.”
But having attainable goals is different than attaining them, and that is the gap South Carolina (22-2, 10-1 SEC) still has to bridge over the next two months. Taking one tight loss does not alter a lot in the big picture, but it did illustrate a discernible, and troubling trend for the Gamecocks.
Both of South Carolina’s losses this year have featured a dominant post player tearing the Gamecocks apart down low. In November it was UCLA’s Lauren Betts picking up a double-double and getting to the basket at will. Today it was Kyla Oldacre, the sensational center who pushed South Carolina’s front court around in crunch time with eight points in the fourth quarter. It was so bad, she forced Staley to change her usual rotation.
Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards did not play a second in the fourth quarter, with Staley citing Sania Feagin’s ability to match-up with her as the reason Feagin played in crunch time.
“They used Oldacre to finish us,” Staley said. “She did a great job. She came through time and time again with crucial baskets.”
Texas won the paint scoring battle 40-26, and out-rebounded South Carolina 42-35, the second time in a month South Carolina lost a rebounding battle to its biggest SEC competitor. And when you add it in with the Gamecocks also losing the rebounding battles to LSU, Tennessee and UCLA, it is enough of a recurring trend to say this version of South Carolina will struggle to rebound against elite competition all year.
In some ways it is the basketball equivalent of having luxury problems, issues most other teams would wish for. South Carolina is still an elite offensive squad, defends as well as anyone in the nation and will have more depth than nearly everyone it faces.
But this one problem — particularly since Ashlyn Watkins went down — is not going anywhere. It is something the Gamecocks will have to battle all season, and hope they can get the right match-ups with an NCAA Tournament draw to avoid opponents with elite forwards.
“We give up too much when Chloe or Joyce are on her,” Staley said about Oldacre. “We could have tried Adhel [Tac], she’s just not experienced enough. She’s a very experienced post player. I thought she brought it all home for them.”
The savior is not popping up out of nowhere at this stage. Watkins is done for the year, and another Kamilla Cardoso or Aliyah Boston s not waiting around the corner to change the calculous of post defense. One way or another, South Carolina is going to have to work around this one flaw to win six NCAA Tournament games and cut down a net in Tampa. Better guard play would certainly help; the Gamecock guards were 10-of-35 (28.5 percent) from the floor and accounted for six of the team's eight free throw misses.
Maybe the defense has to get to an extra gear, the type of completely stifling performance it had in the first Texas game and the win over LSU. Giving up 1.031 points per possession is far from a bad performance, but was still wll off the pace this group has hit in the past.
A tweak here, a break there, and South Carolina beats Texas yesterday and grabs a stranglehold on the SEC title race. But win or lose, the big picture with three weeks left in the regular season is the same.
If the match-ups break well, South Carolina is still one of the favorites to win the National Championship. But at this point, it is February. The regular season schedule is 80 percent over. The Gamecocks are who they are.
An incredible, all-world caliber team more than capable of winning the National Championship with one glaring hole it has to try to work around.
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