South Carolina got a sterling game from Destanni Henderson and earned a hard-fought 77-60 win over Alabama.

Alabama entered the game unranked and without much name recognition, but the Crimson Tide were undefeated and ranked 19th in the initial NET rankings released Monday afternoon. Their matchup zone gives teams fits, and the Gamecocks were no exception.

South Carolina tried to get Aliyah Boston involved, but Alabama held her to just five points on 2-10 shooting. Laeticia Amihere also struggled, shooting 1-7 with five turnovers.

With the inside game struggling, the backcourt of Henderson and Zia Cooke took over. Dawn Staley said over the weekend that the thing she liked most about how Henderson had been playing was her sense of pace - she understood how to play fast and initiate the offense without rushing. That pace made the difference against Alabama as Henderson was frequently able to beat the defense to the rim, even after made baskets. When she wasn’t getting behind Alabama for her own shot, Henderson was preventing Alabama from setting its defense.

“She pushed tempo. When she’s playing fast and downhill she’s a hard guard. There were times when she looked spectacular,” Staley said. “It was great to see her get it going. It was great to see her run our basketball team and get other people involved.”

Henderson finished with 20 points on 7-16 shooting, eight rebounds, and five assists with just one turnover. It was arguably the best all-around game of Henderson’s career

Henderson overshadowed Coke, who scored 18 points and is playing some of the best basketball of her career. South Carolina’s two big runs during the game, a 9-0 second quarter run to go up double digits and an 11-2 run spanning the third and fourth quarters, each began with a basket by Cooke. Over the last four games (since the NC State loss), Cooke is averaging 21.5 points on 51.6% (32-62) shooting. She’s also 11-19 from three.

Victaria Saxton added 15 points, the beneficiary of being on the other side of Boston. Although South Carolina didn’t get a lot of scoring from its front court, it got dominant rebounding. South Carolina outrebounded Alabama 55-31 and grabbed 26 offensive rebounds (leading to 22 second chance points). Boston and Brea Beal each had ten rebounds, Saxton had six, and Amihere had five, as crashing the glass was a team effort.

“Their length in the paint and depth in the paint really hurt us,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said. “We knew coming into the game we’d have to defend the glass and we didn’t do that. 55-31, we just got annihilated on the glass.”

The Crimson Tide got 28 points from Jordan Lewis, who took advantage of what is becoming the Gamecocks’ trademark third quarter lapse. The Tide shot 39.2% for the game, but 58.3% in the third quarter. Henderson and Cooke matched Lewis shot-for-shot, but Staley emphasized that the offensive heroics wouldn’t have been necessary if they defended better and avoided the lapses.

“There are glimpses of really good play,” Staley said. “In order for us to achieve what we’re trying to achieve it has to be 90% of the game or else people are going to beat you.”

Notes:

Reserve guard Destiny Littleton missed her second straight game. … Official Angelica Suffren was late arriving to Coleman Coliseum. The game began with just two officials (Dee Kantner and Cameron Inouye) before Sufferen joined midway through the second quarter. … Turnovers were about even, with 13 by South Carolina and 12 by Alabama, but what they did with turnovers was not. South Carolina scored 18 points off turnovers while Alabama had just four. … South Carolina also had a 21-4 advantage in fast break points. … Jasmine Walker had eight points and four rebounds in the first quarter, but she was only able to double those numbers over the final three quarters as South Carolina held her in check the rest of the game. … South Carolina returns to action Thursday night against Georgia.