Who: #1 South Carolina (11-0) vs. Coastal Carolina (5-5)
Time/TV: 12:00 on SEC Network +
Line: Oddly there is a Total of 129.5 but no game line. Best guess: Cocks -38.5
History: SC leads 7-0. The two schools have never met in the Dawn Staley era.
Last Meeting: December 29, 2004. Carolina 70-50. The Gamecocks defeated Coastal in front of an announced crowd of 1,033 people. The Gamecocks were led by Melanie Johnson's 18-point, 18-rebound performance. Johnson would be a two-time Second Team All-SEC player for the Gamecocks before playing professionally for three seasons, first for Besiktas JK of the Turkish Women’s Basketball League, then for teams in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Austria. Johnson spent two season as the head coach of Lakewood Ranch High's girl's team outside of Sarasota, Florida.
Scouting the Chanticleers
First-year Coastal coach Kevin Pederson is no stranger to coaching in the Palmetto State. Pederson led Lander University to unprecedented success during his 17 years (2005-22) in Greenwood, as he guided the Bearcats to a 356-160 overall record and 13 NCAA Division II Championship Tournament appearances, including the last eight straight seasons. Pederson also coached at Anderson University and was a student manager at Clemson under Rick Barnes.
"I always like playing teams coached by Kevin because I know we'll be facing a tough, disciplined team who will challenge us to be the same. His history of success at Lander speaks to that culture throughout his program, and it will be great to watch that translate to the next level of basketball at Coastal Carolina," said Dawn Staley.
This will be Coastal's third game against SEC competition. Their first games of the season were losses at Georgia (61-78) and Kentucky (53-79). Aja Blount is Coastal's leading scorer at 17.5 ppg. Joining her in double figures is Arin Freeman at 10.7 ppg. The Chanticleers are going to have a rough time on the boards as their tallest player is 6'2 center Miriam Recarte. The graduate student from Spain only averages 3.3 rebounds a game. Blount is also Coastal's leading rebounder averaging 8.7 rebounds a game. Surprisingly, Coastal has no South Carolina natives on their team.
What's Going to Happen
Dawn Staley is going to fine-tune her rotations before SEC play. This should be a game where Aliyah Boston, Brea Beal, Victoria Saxton, and Kamilla Cardoso control the glass and rebound most missed jump shots.
I don't believe that South Carolina has had their "A" game since the 4th quarter and overtime period against Stanford. Even when the shots aren't falling South Carolina's defense has been stifling. Carolina leads the country in scoring defense allowing only 44.3 points per game. The Gamecocks lead the nation in blocked shots and average 2.6 more blocks than second-place Florida State. Carolina opponents are shooting an NCAA-worst 26.9% from the field against the Gamecocks. The Gamecocks trail only LSU, (who has played absolutely no one), in rebounding margin nationally and trail only FAU nationally in 3-point percentage, with opponents shooting only 21.6 from behind the arc.
South Carolina wins this game comfortably as Gamecocks fans can monitor Gamecock Scoop on their phone to keep up with National Signing Day.
