AUSTIN, Texas — The streak is over.
South Carolina women’s basketball’s 57 consecutive SEC regular season wins are a thing of the past after the No. 2 Gamecocks lost their return meeting against No. 4 Texas, a 66-62 loss at the Moody Center.
A spirited South Carolina (22-2, 10-1 SEC) rally saw the Gamecocks tie the game after trailing by as many as 10, but they never took the lead at any point. The final nail in the coffin came in the closing seconds when the Gamecocks got a possession down two points with under 30 seconds to go. Tessa Johnson drove in strong and tried to draw contact, but her wild layup did not earn a whistle and flailed high up off the backboard safely into the arms of Texas (24-2, 10-1 SEC) star Madison Booker.
Texas knocked down two free throws at the other end with 10.8 seconds left, making it a two-possession game and officially putting a lid on the winning streak.
The loss still leaves South Carolina in a position where it controls its own destiny to win the SEC regular season title, but not the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The league officially recognizes all teams at least tied for first place as regular season champions, something the Gamecocks have experienced before when they tied with Tennessee in the 2015-16 season.
But if South Carolina and Texas both win out, the No. 1 seed in next month’s SEC Tournament would come down to a coin flip with both teams on identical conference records and no head-to-head tiebreaker applicable.
As for how the Gamecocks worked themselves in this predicament, it all circled back to stagnant offense. South Carolina hit just nine shots from the floor in the entire first half and only two players — Raven Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley — recorded an assist. Lackluster ball movement, inability to create open space in the halfcourt and poor free throw shooting accounted for the deficit. South Carolina shot just 21-of-57 from the floor in the game and 15-of-23 from the free throw line, including seven misses from the stripe in the first half.
And in this game, free throw shooting was always going to be critical.’
A tightly-whistled game left both Dawn Staley and Vic Schaefer incredulous with officials all day, and forced both to manage minutes differently with foul trouble. The first quarter alone featured 15 fouls and 22 foul shots, more resembling a free throw shooting contest with some basketball occasionally spliced in.
Texas built an advantage as high as 10 points late in the first half, a familiar predicament for the Gamecocks. South Carolina has trailed by double-digits in marquee road games at Stanford, UConn, North Carolina, LSU and UCLA in the last three seasons plus the National Championship game against Iowa, and pulled back all of those games except the one at UCLA.
Sure enough, the visitors rallied. South Carolina tied the game on a Chloe Kitts and-1 late in the third quarter and managed to stay within striking distance the rest of the way, but a head-scratching lineup decision helped sink the rally.
Staley busted out a four-guard lineup for the entirety of the fourth quarter, and had Sania Feagin as the lone post player. That meant Kitts and Joyce Edwards did not play one second in the final frame, watching as Texas center Kyla Oldacre bullied her way into the post against a helplessly undersized post defense and the Longhorns grabbed five offensive rebounds in the closing minutes.
It is not a season-ending loss or even a championship-costing one, but it will be an infuriating one for the Gamecocks after they had ample opportunities down the stretch and could not take advantage either in half court offense or at the free throw line.
The UCLA loss was getting dominated by a better team. This was playing mostly even, but going down with self-inflicted wounds.
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