South Carolina’s front court was dominant as the Gamecocks pulled away from Mercer in the second half for a 79-53 win.
Aliyah Boston and Victaria Saxton each scored 20 points to lead the Gamecocks. Boston continued the play that made her the SEC Tournament MVP, adding 18 rebounds and dishing out three assists, while tying the program tournament record with nine offensive rebounds. Saxton tied her career-high for points and chipped in six rebounds as South Carolina tied the program record for a tournament game with 52 rebounds. She scored eight of her points early in the game while the Gamecocks were still trying to find their rhythm. Despite it being the first tournament game for most of her teammates, Saxton said nerves were not an issue.
“I don’t think anybody on our team was nervous,” she said. “I think we were excited because it’s been so long.”
South Carolina led by 11 after the first quarter, but Mercer opened the second on a 15-4 run to tie the game at 27. Dawn Staley called a timeout, in part to substitute out of a “funky lineup,” but also to deliver a message to her players.
“I basically said this team is not going to die,” Staley said. “I told them don’t flinch. This is part of our journey. We’ve got to get back to some of our good habits and things will get back to us controlling the game.”
South Carolina got the message and finished the half on a 16-5 run. Boston began the run with a three-point play and ended it with a pick and pop three right before halftime, the only points that didn’t come in the paint.
“We knew that we had an advantage in the paint so we knew we had to take care of that,” Saxton said. “We knew we had to be patient.”
Mercer mixed up its defenses throughout the game, part of the reason it was able to force the second quarter tie. The Bears showed box-and-1, diamond-and-1, and just about every shape you could think of. They successfully took Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson out of the game in the first half, when both were scoreless, but neither panicked.
“We knew they were going to junk it up. One of our keys today was offensive execution against their changing defenses,” Staley said. “They did a great job of trying to take away two of our most productive people, and they did that in the first half.”
In the second half, Cooke figured out how to attack the Bears, scoring 13 points and creating shots for teammates. At one point she scored or set up eight straight points as South Carolina stayed patient. A 12-2 third quarter run pushed the lead past 20, and then an 8-0 run to start the fourth put the game out of reach.
The final margin of victory may have seemed smaller than expected, but it probably shouldn’t have been. The 26-point win was more than 2019’s 22-point win or 2018’s 11-point win. And Mercer certainly didn’t look like a normal 16 seed.
“Mercer is a pretty darn good team,” Staley said.
Notes:
The win gave Staley 500 victories for her career. … Henderson was held scoreless for the first time since she failed to score in two minutes of action against Tennessee on February 24, 2019. Staley was pleased that Henderson did not “force things” and continued to run the team. … Boston tied Aleighsa Welch, who also had nine offensive rebounds in the Final Four against Notre Dame in 2015. … Destiny Littleton tied her season-high with eight points. She went 5-6 from the line after not attempting a single free throw during the month of February and attempting a total of just four since January 31. … Laeticia Amihere had 11 points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes, picking up some of LeLe Grissett’s minutes at small forward. ... South Carolina advances to play the winner of the Oregon State-Florida State game.
