#5 South Carolina used a 17-2 second half run to spur a come-from-behind 75-70 win at #10 Kentucky.
It wasn’t the way Dawn Staley drew it up, but then the Gamecocks only had one practice to work on the game plan. After a positive COVID test forced South Carolina to postpone Thursday’s game against Georgia and pause all team activities, the Gamecocks had to install the Kentucky game plan virtually. The third round of negative tests came back shortly after 5:00 pm Saturday, giving South Carolina just 24 hours to practice, sleep, and then get on a plane to Lexington.
The game plan for Kentucky was familiar: make Rhyne Howard work on both ends of the court, don’t up easy baskets, and get the ball inside to Aliyah Boston. And hope that the players would be in some sort of game shape after being stuck in their rooms for three days.
It pretty much all went wrong in the first half. The Gamecocks looked sluggish and imprecise. Boston picked up her second foul chasing down a lazy perimeter pass just five minutes into the game and sat the rest of the half. The Gamecocks committed 12 first half turnovers, at least four on those lazy passes, that led to 15 points for the Wildcats and helped Howard easily get into a groove (19 first half points). The result was a 41-32 Kentucky lead.
“There were a lot of censoreds in the locker room at halftime,” Staley said. “I just challenged our players to guard because they looked a little tentative in guarding Rhyne and guarding all of the players.”
Those choice words - and the return of Boston - worked. Boston played all 20 minutes in the second half and was dominant. Destanni Henderson responded to being challenged by cutting down on turnovers and notching her second consecutive 20-point game. Kentucky went from shooting 45% in the first half to 31% in the second, and although Howard still finished with 32 points, she had to work harder in the second half.
“We had to rely on some other things like pushing tempo and rebounding the basketball,” Staley said. “Those two area were the reason we won the basketball game.”
South Carolina made an effort to push the tempo, and when it had to work in the halfcourt, it went to Boston early and often. South Carolina’s first eight points of the third quarter came in the paint, and four were from Boston, matching her first half output. It was a good start, but Kentucky managed to keep South Carolina at bay, leading by eight after a Howard layup with 2:21 left in the third.
Then Boston and Henderson took over. Boston nailed a three, and then Henderson grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup. Boston blocked a three-point attempt, waived off Henderson and ran the break herself, finishing with a layup. Henderson then missed a layup, but Laeticia Amihere, who scored 10 points mostly while filling in for Boston in the first half, scored off the offensive rebound to give the Gamecocks a 57-56 lead going into the fourth.
Kentucky retook the lead to start the fourth quarter, but then Boston and Henderson combined to score the next eight points. In total it was a 17-2 run that put the Gamecocks in control. The Wildcats pulled back within one after Chasity Patterson hit back-to-back threes as part of a personal 8-0 run. But LeLe Grissett got wide-open for a baseline layup. Howard answered with a pair of free throws, but then Boston rebounded her own miss for a layup, which proved to be the dagger.
“The shot would go up and we would double-team her and she would still come up with the board,” Kentucky coach Kyra Elzy said. “You take three or four of those open layups away and it’s a different ballgame.”
Henderson finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, and three assists while running a one-woman fast break. Boston was even better, threatening to earn her second career triple-double. She finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, seven blocks, and three steals in just 25 minutes. Boston helped South Carolina dominate Kentucky on the glass 46-31. South Carolina was only +2 on the offensive glass, but turned those into a 23-10 advantage in second chance points.
“When she’s out there she makes an impact, whether it was rebounding the basketball, whether it was helping control us,” Staley said. “When Aliyah Boston is able to play Aliyah Boston’s style of basketball you see what she is capable of doing in a near triple-double.”
Howard’s scoring built Kentucky’s early lead and then kept the Wildcats in the game (she had the only basket during South Carolina’s 17-2 run), but there were diminishing returns. Kentucky drifted back into its old bad habit of standing around watching Howard - she had 30 of Kentucky’s 60 points. Howard also started to wear down. She only sat about 30 second in the fourth quarter, but she missed a critical offensive possession, and she shot just 2-7 in the fourth quarter.
“You’re not going to stop Rhyne Howard from scoring, let’s just make it difficult,” Staley said. “If she’s going one direction, make her change directions. Don’t give her what she wants.”
Notes:
Zia Cooke struggled with her shot and scored just seven points on 2-12 shooting. She also missed two free throws late that could have iced the game. Fortunately she got a second chance and sunk both. … Staley said South Carolina couldn’t match Kentucky three-for-three. The Gamecocks almost did. They went 2-4 from three while the Wildcats were 3-20. … Boston had one of those threes. Freshman Eniya Russell had the other. … Destiny Littleton returned after missing the last two games. She only played one minute and picked up a foul going for a rebound. ... South Carolina’s next game is Thursday at Vanderbilt.
