South Carolina bounced back from its first loss in over a year with an emphatic 83-65 win over #23 Iowa State.

Dawn Staley called the loss to the Wolfpack ugly, and ripped into the Gamecocks, calling them selfish, immature, and uncoachable. She cited a lack of leadership as a reason they resorted to bad shots and one-on-one basketball, saying repeatedly there was no flow.

The flow was corrected in a major way Sunday. South Carolina reached a season-high in assists by the end of the third quarter. Ball movement was crisp, players moved with purpose, and the Gamecocks were patient. The ball got inside, something that didn’t happen against NC State, and it didn’t stick. As a result, the ball went in the basket, and South Carolina had an answer for whatever Iowa State tried to do.

“Offensive flow is the ball should find who should shoot it,” Staley said. “We reversed the ball, and because of that we found ourselves getting any kind of shot we wanted. and we found ourselves getting any shot we wanted

Brea Beal and Aliyah Boston scored five points each as South Carolina sprinted out to a 10-0 lead just 90 seconds into the game. Iowa State answered with a 7-0 run, and trailed just 16-15 midway through the first. South Carolina was purposefully overplaying, confident Iowa State would hurt them on backdoor cuts. But Iowa State was able to make precision passes and get to the rim for open layups. So South Carolina adjusted defensively and held Iowa State without a field goal for nearly ten minutes as part of a 17-2 run.

“They were able to thread the needle, some of those passes were incredible,” Staley said. “Our help wasn’t in the right position so we had to abandon that and just keep them in front of us.”

South Carolina led by fifteen at halftime and put the game out of reach in the third quarter. Iowa State tried to counter South Carolina's size advantage by going to a zone. South Carolina didn’t panic, passed the ball and got one open three after another, hitting four of their first six attempts and six of nine for the quarter. The lead got as high as 25 early in the fourth quarter before Staley called off the dogs.

South Carolina matched its entire season total for made threes in the game. They entered the game shooting 13-44 (29.5%) and shot 13-26 (50%) Sunday. Zia Cooke led the way with 19 points on 6-12 shooting and 4-6 from three. Beal and Destanni Henderson each added three triples, and BEal finished with 13 points and four rebounds while Henderson had a very efficient 12 points, seven assists, and four rebounds. Boston had by far her best game of the season, scoring 13 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. She also had three assists passing out of double teams.

“I take my hat off to our players because they didn’t fight it,” Staley said. “They really understood what needed to happen in order for us to get back to playing our style of play. I was happy for us because we shared the ball.”

Iowa State got 32 points from player of the year candidate Ashley Joens, but South Carolina was able to minimize her damage. Joens had no assists and only had five rebounds, half her season average, though she still led the Cyclones in rebounding. Joens was 11-22 shooting, but the rest of the Cyclones had just 33 points on 12-40 shooting.

“She’s a hard guard, we knew that coming into the game,” Staley said. “She scores a lot of points, but she’s selfless.”

In keeping Joens off the glass, South Carolina was able to hold a 50-24 rebounding advantage and 15-4 edge in second chance points.

Notes:

LeLe Grissett did not make the trip due to a head injury. … Due to foul trouble, Olivia Thompson and Elysa Wesolek got playing time in the second quarter. Both were scoreless, with Thompson unable to convert a pair of open three-point looks. … Laeticia Amihere struggled with fouls and had just four points and two rebounds in nine minutes. Eniya Russell and Destiny Littleton picked up the slack. Russell had eight points, and Littleton five points, seven rebounds, and three assists. … Lexi Donarski was the only other Cyclone in double figures with 13 points. South Carolina’s next game is December 17 against Temple.