Two losses, two furious responses.

Back in November when South Carolina women’s basketball lost at UCLA, the Gamecocks ripped off a 32-0 run against Iowa State. Thursday night in response to their SEC winning streak-snapping loss at Texas, the Gamecocks fired off one of their best offensive halves in program history.

No. 4 South Carolina smoked Florida 101-63 at Colonial Life Arena behind a 36-15 advantage in the first quarter and a 62-32 lead at halftime, both historic marks.

The first quarter tied for the second-highest scoring quarter against any opponent in program history, and the 62 first half points tied the most the Gamecocks have ever scored in any half against an SEC opponent.

In every possible sense of the phrase, it was a perfect offensive half and specifically first quarter. South Carolina (23-2, 11-1 SEC) scored on a staggering 16 of its 20 offensive possessions in the first quarter, at one point going on a 15-1 run with surgical precision. Te-Hina Paopao opened up the party with three 3-pointers before the first media timeout, setting the tone up top. Paopao finished the game with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists on a night where she could have chased a triple-double with more minutes.

Her teammates made sure she did not need them.

Specifically Joyce Edwards, who made sure there was some individual history in the game to go with all the team records. Edwards scored a career-high 28 points, making her the first freshman in South Carolina history to score 28 points in an SEC game and the first freshman to do it in any game since Kelsey Bone pulled off the feat in 2009 at Clemson.

For most of the second quarter she anchored another one of Dawn Staley’s four-guard lineups, a smaller alternative to Sania Feagin doing it in the last two games. South Carolina committed to running as much as possible and overwhelmed Florida (12-13, 3-8 SEC) in transition with 18 fastbreak points in the first half alone and 27 in the game. The 3-point shooting was on point as well with an 8-of-12 first half showing, and even the free throw shooting was a nearly perfect 21-of-22.

Some of it was the nature of Florida’s struggles, particularly defensively. The Gators are one of the worst defensive teams in the conference, 14th of 16 SEC teams entering play and 137th nationally by BartTorvik’s efficiency rankings. But whether the Gamecocks were playing a lowly Florida team, an elite UConn team like the one it will face on Sunday or anyone in between, this was the type of offensive performance you rarely see in a conference game at this level.

Now the challenge is taking it back into said UConn game next time out.

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