South Carolina faces rival Kentucky as the Gamecocks try to bounce back from their first SEC loss in almost two years.

1. Crunch time

In South Carolina’s three losses, plus we’ll throw in the fourth quarter against LSU last weekend - there have been a couple of common threads. The offense has failed to execute, most notably late in the game.

Staley believes that the solution to most of the offensive woes is as simple as making layups. Against Tennessee, South Carolina was 15-32 on layups, which was actually better than South Carolina has shot in other games. But there were still too many easy misses, especially when the missed layups are the product of fast break opportunities.

The second issue is a little more unique. The Gamecocks simply don’t have experience in close games. Last season, outside of the first Mississippi State game, there really were no other close games. These close games, where every possession is of critical importance, are something new.

“They’re unfamiliar to us,” Dawn Staley said. “The tight games that we played in some of our losses, and even some of our wins, they don’t come without error. We have to figure out what we want to do in those settings. For us, we’ve got to work through Aliyah. She’s been the one that is a calm in most of our storms. She can make good basketball decisions. It doesn’t mean she has to shoot, it just means she has to touch it and we facilitate through her.”

Working through Boston has been an issue at times. She can’t be expected to get the ball in the post on every possession in the game, but in the fourth quarter it had better be close. Against NC State, Boston was largely forgotten. She was unstoppable from the high post against UConn, but made a bad decision to launch a spot up three late that gave the Huskies life, and then missed two putbacks at the buzzer that would have won the game. Against LSU Boston did not play in most of the fourth quarter. And then Thursday Boston scored six of eight points for the Gamecocks to grab a four-point lead, but then only got two free throws the rest of the way.

“There’s a pecking order when you’re coming down the stretch and the game is on the line,” Staley said. “Very few people can touch it. If Aliyah touches it, I do like the decisions she would make.”

2. Help for Henny

Destanni Henderson scored 10 points ub the first half against Tennessee, but had just five points with four turnovers in the second half. After the game, Staley admitted she leaned too hard on Henderson, who played all forty minutes. Staley said she didn’t trust anyone else to run the point, something that needs to change going forward.

One way to do that would kill two birds with one stone: get the ball to Boston.

“When she gets it everybody has to be on guard,” Staley said. “It will alleviate some of the pressure that is put on Destanni Henderson night in and night out with her playing heavy minutes.”

Letting Boston orchestrate the offense from the high post would also allow Henderson to focus on scoring, and especially on spacing the floor as a shooter. But Staley also needs other players to step up. Destiny Littleton had shown steady improvement off the bench as the third guard, but got a DNP-CD against Tennessee. Eniya Russell is talented and fearless, but still a normal freshman whose good plays and mistakes tend to even out. Staley has force-fed Russell the last two games to accelerate the learning process, and she played most of the fourth quarter in Knoxville to help space the floor. Russell sank two clutch free throws against LSU, but also missed a couple of quick shots against Tennessee.

3. Slow Cooke-ing

Zia Cooke had 15 points against Tennessee, but shot just 6-22. It continued a rough February for Cooke, who is shooting just 31.3% (21-67) over the past four games. She topped 40% shooting just once, against Missouri. The good thing is that, especially against Tennessee, Cooke was taking good shots, but that is also the frustrating part.

Cooke missed layups in the halfcourt, she missed a fast break layup, and she badly missed a wide-open three on an inbounds play designed to get her an open look. Staley sat Cooke for a while in the first half, but she isn’t going to tell Cooke to stop shooting, especially when she’s open. It only takes one or two going in for Cooke to get on a hot streak like she had against Florida (12 straight points to end the third quarter), Mississippi State (eight straight points to put South Carolina ahead for good) or Alabama (12 third quarter points).

“Zia took those shots, she felt like she was open. Obviously we want her to be a lot more efficient than she was,” Staley said. “If Zia’s feeling it and if Zia makes four more baskets, it’s still not 50% but it’s enough to give us an opportunity to win a basketball game.”

4. SEC Standings

The SEC standings are… a mess. Between COVID and winter weather, there have been a slew of postponed games. There will soon be a scramble to make up lost games, but it is a race against time. Only South Carolina and Alabama have played a full 13 games. Excluding Vanderbilt, which has opted out of the season, the remaining 11 teams have played between eight and 12 games.

The loss to Tennessee brought South Carolina back into the scrum. South Carolina is now percentage points ahead of Texas A&M in second place. The good news is that, as long as its three remaining games are played, South Carolina still controls its own destiny.

“As much as it’s a devastating loss, there’s still a lot of the season left,” Staley said Thursday. “All of our goals are still in front of us because of the work we put in and the position we put ourselves in prior to today’s loss.”

If games get canceled or rescheduled? I started running through some what ifs, but there are so many variables it is impossible to account for everything. Just win, baby.

5. Scouting the Wildcats

Cooke isn’t the only big scorer dealing with some shooting woes. Rhyne Howard is coming off a 12-20 performance against Florida, but in the two games before that she went 7-26 and 4-13. She’s still, you know, Rhyne Howard, and more than capable of dropping 30 on any given day, but those off games are symptomatic of a Kentucky team that is hard to get a read on.

At one point the Wildcats were ranked #9 and considered the equal of Texas A&M and maybe South Carolina. But that ranking was built on a lot of fourth quarter comebacks in the non-conference season, and after back-to-back losses to the Aggies and Gamecocks, the bloom was off the rose and now we are back where we’ve been the past few years around this time, wondering why Kentucky can’t quite put it all together every game.

When Kentucky is at its best, Howard doesn’t have to do everything on her own, although that is a decent ace up the Wildcats’ sleeve. Chasity Patterson, Dre’una Edwards, and Blair Green have each had moments this season, and when they can offer balance alongside Howard the Wildcats are much better.

South Carolina used a 17-2 second half run to earn a come-from-behind win in Lexington in early January. That was South Carolina’s first game after a brief shutdown for a false positive COVID test, and the Gamecocks didn’t find out until the night before if they could even practice, let alone play. With that in mind, I’m not sure how much we can learn from it, but some things were familiar. Boston was nearly unstoppable in the second half and finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, seven blocks, and three steals despite playing just 25 minutes due to early foul trouble. Henderson had 22 points and was able to beat Kentucky down court for easy baskets.

Howard had 30 points, and mostly got the better of the Gamecocks. However, she started to wear down in the fourth quarter, when she shot just 2-7. Ideally, the Gamecocks would like to wear her down sooner. Last season the Gamecocks had success going to Brea Beal early to make Howard work defensively, but Beal only had two points on two shots in January. Expect more of an effort to get Beal and LeLe Grissett involved offensively this time.

The Ws

Who: #2 South Carolina (17-3, 12-1) vs #17 Kentucky (15-5, 8-4)

When: Sunday, February 21, 3:00 pm

Where: Colonial Life Arena

Watch: ESPN