WBB: First and Second Round Wrap-up

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

South Carolina edged Florida State Sunday to reach the Sweet 16, so let’s clear out the notebook after a weekend from Charlotte, the home-away-from-home.

Charlotte’s got it

This was my first visit to UNC Charlotte and Halton Arena. As I mentioned before, there were a few growing pains from an inexperienced support staff, but they more than made up for it by being friendly and helpful. All the teams commented on how friendly everyone was. The campus is easy to get to and pleasant, and Halton Arena is a really nice facility. Gamecock head coach Dawn Staley thanked Charlotte and the people there repeatedly, and it was sincere.

“I know there are people that lost some sleep because we were here the last couple of weeks,” Staley said. “I would say thank you to them and hopefully we can return the favor.”

Them Again

Sunday’s game was the third meeting in five years between South Carolina and Florida State in the NCAA Tournament, all narrow South Carolina wins. The two were also matched up last year before Buffalo upset Florida State. It doesn’t mean much to the Florida State players, and coach Sue Semrau insisted it doesn’t bother her, but Staley feels for the Seminoles.

“I do feel for Florida State,” Staley said. “We’ve been in this situation before and we’ve won all the games. It’s not as easy as saying we won the games. They fought. They gave us an incredible effort.”

Fun fact: South Carolina’s last game in the Metro Conference was a 54-53 loss to Florida State in the 1991 tournament championship. According to the handwritten box score, there were 220 people in attendance.

The streak is alive

This is the sixth straight Sweet 16 appearance for South Carolina, and seventh in eight years, a streak that isn’t lost on Staley or the players. The players don’t want to be on the team that breaks the streak.

“It’s an amazing feeling knowing we are keeping the tradition alive,” Tyasha Harris said. “It’s hard to put into words, but we’re still dancing.”

For Staley, the streak is more about validation for the program, and setting standards. This year’s squad didn’t look like a Sweet 16 team for most of the season, yet here they are.

“This year, a lot of people don’t know how to take our team because we’ve been inconsistent throughout the year,” Staley said. “I’m super proud. It’s about sustaining. It’s about keeping your program in a place in which you are competing for national championships. When you have that in front of you, it certainly feels good for our former players, our current players, and our future players.”

“Miami Vice”

The biggest play of the game was Harris’ and-one layup with less than a minute to play that put South Carolina up four points. The play was called “Miami Vice,” although Staley shushed Harris when she said the name.

“We still executed, it’s okay,” Harris said, then she denied the “Miami Vice” name.

The play wasn’t necessarily designed to get a layup for Harris, but it was supposed to create a situation where the play was hers to make, be it pass or shoot. When Florida State unexpectedly went zone, the play broke down a little, there was some confusion. Mikiah Herbert Harrigan was isolated on the right wing, and had a defender glued to her. Bianca Jackson, Te’a Cooper, and Alexis Jennings were on the left block, with Jennings and Jackson trying to set a screen, but mostly getting jumbled up.

“It was a breakdown and I just kind of took it,” Harris said.

“In the timeout we set up a play for Ty to have the ball and make a decision whether she wanted to shoot it or dump it to someone,” Staley said. “For Ty to have the whereabouts to get the ball and create a play, it happened in the same place it should have happened if we were able to get some screen action.”

Jennings had been the focal point of the offense in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of her 16 points, while Herbert Harrigan had scored a game-high 20 points, so naturally they had the Seminoles’ attention. Herbert Harrigan’s defender stayed on her and was afraid to help on Harris’ drive. The same happened on the left side, as Cooper ran her defender out of the play, and the other two Seminoles were focused on Jennings, expecting her to get the ball, and were late to help.

“Definitely that’s what I saw,” Jennings said. “Also, the fact that we have five players on the floor that score is a good thing as well.”

Free throws matter

South Carolina made 7-of-9 free throws in the final 90 seconds, and 20-of-24 for the game.That success effectively negated the huge rebounding edge that Florida State had. None of the free throws were bigger than the two made by freshman Victaria Saxton. Saxton played only five minutes, but she played hard, with two rebounds and two blocks. The second rebound was a big one, as she was fouled on the putback as the shot clock expired, with South Carolina up just one.

Saxton had to wait to shoot while the officials reviewed the play to make sure the foul came before the horn. Her teammates tried to keep her calm during the wait.

“They were just telling me to put it in, shoot it how I always shoot it, don’t change anything,” Saxton said.

Of course, for a 57 percent free throw shooter, that might not be the best advice. But she calmly sank both free throws. I asked her what she was thinking when she stepped to the line for those two shots.

“Nothing, really. I just went out there and did it,” she said. “I didn’t want to think too hard about it.”

When I tried to talk to Saxton after the game, she kept moving away from me, until I was finally able to get her attention. She thought she was in the way and apologized, and I said, “No, I want to talk to you!” She said she has only been in that situation once before, when she had to make a pair of free throws in an AAU game. She made those too, but said, “It was stressful.”

The mind of KiKi

KiKi Herbert Harrigan was, for good and bad, the star of the weekend. She was benched (not suspended, Staley stressed) for a transgression that Staley said was “very minimal” and told to "get her mind right." If the point was to make Herbert Harrigan more focused, it worked, although she still had jokes. Staley called out Herbert Harrigan in the final pregame meeting Friday and told her she wouldn’t play in the first half. Sunday, in the final pregame meeting, she called out Herbert Harrigan again.

“I said KiKi, you’re going to play today,” Staley said. “And she said, I know, I read in the media that I’m fully available.”

Harris talked about how Herbert Harrigan’s ability to score in different ways opens up the offense. She also talked about her baseline jumper, which Herbert Harrigan almost never misses, using a term that had some of the, ahem, older members of the media scratching their heads.

“(She makes) a very big difference,” Harris said. “She’s a great player. Her shot is water from the short corner. She brings a different aspect to the game because she can stretch the defense and the post players.”

South Carolina will play either #1 seed Baylor or #8 seed California on Saturday in Greensboro.