#1 South Carolina used a 9-0 fourth quarter run to take a hard-fought 79-72 victory over #21 Gonzaga.
South Carolina led most of the game, but was never able to shake Gonzaga. The score was 60-56 South Carolina with 7:12 left when Gonzaga called timeout and made its move. Out of the timeout, Gonzaga got a three by Kaylynne Troung. After a South Carolina miss, Jill Townsend, the reigning WCC Player of the Year, hit another three to give Gonzaga its first lead since the early minutes of the game. After that, Destanni Henderson went to work.
She made a pair of free throws to tie the game, and then after a Gonzaga basket, she converted a three-point play to put South Carolina ahead. Gonzaga made a tough layup at the shot clock buzzer, and then Henderson made two more free throws that turned out to put South Carolina ahead for good.
On the next play, with the shot clock running down, Aliyah Boston closed out too hard on Troung and fouled her behind the arc. With a chance to put the Zags up two, Troung missed all three free throws. That seemed to suck all the energy out of the Zags. Boston answered with two free throws, Brea Beal scored a putback and then Zia Cooke, who hadn’t scored since the first minute of the second quarter, converted a three-point play. The 9-0 run gave the Gamecocks a 74-66 lead, their largest of the game. After that they made just enough free throws to hold on for the win.
“We for some reason stalled out,” Gonzaga’s Lisa Fortier. We were a little bit tired, maybe, and it showed in our discipline.”
Henderson was the second half star. After picking up two quick fouls in the first half, Henderson scored all of her career-high 23 points in the second half. With the game in the balance, she also set career-highs by making 10-13 free throws.
“I pushed myself in the second half,” Henderson said. “I found easy baskets and helped my teammates get to the rack.”
Henderson won the tournament MVP award, and her heroics came as some of her teammates struggled. After mixing and matching lineups Saturday, Dawn Staley tightened the bench, only going eight deep. Cooke finished with 16 points, four rebounds, and four assists, but was quiet in the second half. Boston struggled to find her rhythm, although she finished with ten points and had four of her five rebounds in the fourth quarter. Beal also hit double figures with 12 points and seven rebounds.
As a team, South Carolina was just 25-41 from the foul line (61%), and failed to capitalize when it drew fouls around the basket. South Carolina was also just 16-37 on layups, and both of those areas were issues throughout the weekend. South Carolina wasn’t sharp defensively either, allowing Gonzaga to shoot 52.7% from the floor and 47.4% from three. But when the game was on the line, South Carolina came through, and that was what mattered to Staley.
“What would they do when it’s time to check your gut? They checked their gut,” Staley said. “We dug in that bag of familiarity where we were playing some great basketball last year.”
Jenn Wirth led Gonzaga with 16 points before fouling out.
Notes:
South Carolina used the same starting lineup for the third consecutive game: Destanni Henderson, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Victoria Saxton, and Aliyah Boston. … With the win, South Carolina swept its two games this weekend to win the Women’s Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic. … Laeticia Amihere didn’t put up big numbers but was very effective. She had six points, four rebounds, two assists, and a block in 24 minutes. ... Eniya Russell, Olivia Thompson, and Elysa Wesolek did not play. ... South Carolina’s next game is Thursday against NC State.
