In its last tuneup before the first game of the 2022-23 season, South Carolina women's basketball flexed its muscles against local Division II school Benedict.

The Gamecocks won 123-32 in a halloween night exhibition game at Colonial Life Arena, led by 19 points apiece from Zia Cooke and Bree Hall and another 17 Sania Feagin points.

Although the game did not count and the starters were only on the court for about 20 minutes apiece, there were a few takeawys from the evening. Here are three thoughts from the team now seven days out from its regular season opener against East Tennessee State.

The true freshman guard from Turbeville, South Carolina did not start, but she played X minutes and flashed all night.

In particular she was impressive taking on defenders off the dribble, using her quickness to force defenders on the back foot and create open lanes to the basket.

The offensive numbers will not completely reflect her performance -- Cooper finished with just 11 points -- but it was largely due to an inability to finish at the rim after maneuvering her way into advantageous positions.

Her energy carried over to the defense end, particularly with one impressive second half sequence where she recorded steals on back-to-back possessions. She finished the game with six steals, two blocks and several more deflections to wreck Benedict possessions.

"I think she just felt like a utility player that can do a little bit of everything," head coach Dawn Staley said. "I think that the best thing about Coop is she competes. She competes. When you compete, you find a way to impact, so she'll play. We don't have very many guards. We have more bigs than we do guards, so the guards have a really good opportunity to play. They just have to make sure they're competing and being assets to our team."

Dawn Staley did a lot of chopping and changeup with her lineups as you would expect in an exhibition game, and one of the combinations she rolled with a lot was a lineup with Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso on the floor together.

Benedict was of course overwhelemd by the matchup nightmare, but it is a pairing that might translate well to regular season action and throughout SEC play. The duo combined for 18 points and 15 rebounds, and their presence created a physical advantage for South Carolina. Cardoso and Boston combined to attempt eight free throws, but as a team the Gamecocks got to the charity stripe 33 times, knocking down 25 of them and consistently living inside with 70 points in the paint.

"We're able to just throw the ball up," Staley said on the lineup. "We probably didn't throw the ball up enough. I think we just dumped it off. I just like our length on both sides of the basketball. They play well together, they look for each other, essentially they're post players. Quite naturally, they look for each other more so than than probably the guards are looking for them. It gives us two opportunities to get the ball into our bigs."

South Carolina entered the fourth quarter leading 92-31, and shut the door defensively from there.

Benedict did not knock down a field goal over the final 11:38 of action, and only scored one point total as the Gamecocks closed the night with a 31-1 final frame.

The Gamecocks finished the night with 17 steals, nine blocks and 26 total turnovers forced, walling off the paint with only six points allowed inside throughout the 40 minutes.

In the grand scheme of what the Gamecocks are hoping is a five-month run back to the National Championship Game, an exhibition game against Benedict will not make a significant ripple. But in terms of just looking for early building blocks of a championship team ahead of what could be a 38-game grind, the defense against Benedict was a tangible starting point.

"Just talking and communicating and moving our feet," forwrad Sania Feagin said about what was working well on defense. "You know, you don't get offense without defense."

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