WBB sets records, blasts Coastal Carolina 102-39

In its final game before the conference schedule begins, South Carolina women’s basketball ran roughshod over Coastal Carolina 102-39 at Colonial Life Arena. Along the way, they set several season and career highs.

Right off the bat they had their season-high in points with 102, narrowly beating out the previous high of 101 against East Tennessee State. The Gamecocks also blocked 16 shots, their most blocks in any game this season and one away from tying the all-time program record in the department. Five different players had three rejections apiece to lead the way as No. 1 South Carolina (12-0) won its 32nd consecutive home game.

"I think it builds energy and keeps us going," freshamn Ashlyn Watkins said. "It's like a pump-up. 'Oh yeah, I just blocked that, let me get another one. Oh yeah I just blocked that, let me go make this layup.' It just builds energy."

Aliyah Boston secured her 68th career double-double, moving her within four of tying the all-time school record. She scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a light afternoon of 13 minutes, but it was a day defined by several other players putting in season and career-high

Watkins also joined Boston as a big who scored in double-figures by dropping in her career-high 16 points with eight in each half, and Laeticia Amihere came two points away from her own season-high in points by scoring 11.

"She's just more aggressive looking to shoot the basketball, in a variety of ways" Dawn Staley said about Watkins. "Some of them look forced, some of them look like she was moving to fast, I really don't care what they look like now. I just want her to do it, whether they go in, whether she fumbles the ball, she has to get into the mode of doing it."

Zia Cooke continued her hot scoring stretch by getting into double-figures for the fourth consecutive game with 14 points and tied her career-high with five assists. It was a fitting day for her to reach an assist threshold; as a team South Carolina notched its season-high in assists with 23. The Gamecocks also shot a season-best 57.3 percent from the floor, beating out the previous high of 52.9 percent in the season-opener against East Tennessee State. On the other end Coastal Carolina’s (5-6) shot just 20.3 percent, largely due to South Carolina’s imposing interior presence.

The high-water marks started early as the Gamecocks flew out of the gates by matching their highest-scoring quarter of the season by putting up a 30-spot in the opening 10 minutes. South Carolina knocked down nine of its first 13 shots from the field and built-up a double-digit advantage less than four minutes into proceedings. Staley went with an early line change to get the bench involved early, and 13 out of the 14 players on the roster saw the floor within the first 11 minutes.

Sania Feagin scored 13 points in 15 minutes off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting and Kamilla Cardoso was also an efficient 4-of-5 shooting for eight points with six rebounds and three blocks. Cardoso and Feagin were two of the quintet with three blocks alongside Boston, Amihere and Watkins.

Now that the Gamecocks have cleared their non-conference schedule — with the exception of a trip to UConn in February — and will now turn their attention to the 16-game SEC slate starting on Dec. 29 at home against the Texas A&M Aggies.

"One of our goals is to win the SEC, and in order to do that we have to take each games as it comes," Staley said. "I just want us to one, just be who we are with the habits that we've created. And two, get better in transition. Just get better passing the ball and making decisions."