GREENVILLE, S.C — Adhel Tac had no choice but to react.

South Carolina women’s basketball’s early enrollee recovering from a knee injury has only been with the team since December, but she has seen enough to know the gravity of what happened in front of her.

Tessa Johnson, South Carolina’s 6-foot-1 guard without a blocked shot all season, swatted a shot in the middle of a 9-0 run in South Carolina’s 79-68 win over Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.

“That’s a fantastic block,” Tac said. “I’m only on one good leg, but I got up out of the chair. I was happy, I was like, ‘Yeah Tessa!’”

That was a popular sentiment around Bon Secours Wellness Arena as the guard dragged South Carolina (30-0) kicking and screaming out of a first half funk. The Gamecocks turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter and a season-high 24 in the game, a supremely sloppy afternoon which surely will burn them as the road gets tougher from here.

It was a game crying out for somebody — anybody — to take some ownership of the offense and dictate terms. Out of the free-for-all emerged Johnson, who confidently took on defenders off the dribble on back-to-back possessions, hit a 3-pointer and of course had the block heard around Greenville. She led all Gamecock backcourt players in scoring with 13 points, playing a season-high 28 minutes as Dawn Staley kept rolling with the hot hand.

Those numbers qualify as something approaching an outburst by her regular standards, but her actual play was completely normal. All year she has gradually ascended into a comfortable spot in the rotation as the second guard off the bench, offering a steady combination of outside shooting and quickly improving defense.

“Tessa is solid,” Dawn Staley said. “She's very predictable. She can score the ball. She scored a lot of points in high school. Sometimes you don't think that transfers over. With her, it does. I mean, she's a floor spacer, she can get to the rim, s he has a nice pullup. It'sscoring on three levels.”

Of all those assets Staley rattled off, predictable might have been the most important one. This was a highly uncharacteristic day for even the best of South Carolina’s backcourt. Raven Johnson had three turnovers in the blink of a first quarter eye. MiLaysia Fulwiley only hit one shot from the floor all day. Te-HIna Paopao and Bree Hall combined for 13 points and three assists, two figures well below season averages.

The Gamecocks defended well for sure, and it made sure they were never in serious jeopardy of losing even with such disjointed offense, but scoring had to come from somewhere.

Leave it up to calm, steady Tessa Johnson to slide herself into the game at both ends of the floor and keep everything on schedule.

"Tessa played a really good game,” Sania Feagin said. “I told her every time I say next to her or was on the court with her, I told her, ‘Keep it up! You're doing exactly what you need to do. Keep shooting the ball, keep playing good defense.’ I feel like she had a great game today, and I told her that."

She will not lead this team in minutes, eye-popping moments or emotional moments. But in her first taste of postseason action, the presence was precisely what her squad needed. Even the ones who have been around the postseason block could see the impact.”

“They [her teammates] were talking about the difference between regular season and then post-season,” Johnson said. “I could feel the difference on the court. But my mindset is just lock in, trust my team, trust the process and trust my coaches.”

She trusts them, and now more than ever it goes both ways.