WBB Survives Sloppy Showing, Beats Texas A&M 79-68 In SEC Quarterfinals
GREENVILLE, S.C. — No first game jitters for the freshman.
In her first career postseason game, South Carolina women’s basketball true freshman Tessa Johnson sparked her team with 13 points off the bench to help the Gamecocks shake off a sluggish start and rout Texas A&M 79-68 in the quarterfinals.
South Carolina (30-0) is into the semifinals, and will take on either Alabama or Tennessee at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. On the scoreboard the Gamecocks had a 16-13 lead after a quarter, but it was about the only place for Dawn Staley to feel positive about her team.
Maybe it was the lay-off from five days off, perhaps the jitters of starting the postseason or something else, but the Gamecocks played their sloppiest quarter of the season starting right at high noon. A staggering 10 turnovers in 20 possessions turned the game into an ugly slog for awhile.
Enter Tessa Johnson, just in time to wake everyone up. The peroveribal coffee South Carolina needed to beat the groggy start drove to the basket on two straight possessions early in the second quarter, drawing fouls both times and knocking down all four free throws. In one swoop she flashed her play at both ends, blocking her first career shot much to the delight of all the post players and then splashing a 3-pointer at the other end.
She scored all but two points in a 9-0 South Carolina run which gave it a lead it never relinquished, despite tying a season-high in turnovers with 23.
Aicha Coulibaly kept Texas A&M (19-12) in the fight with 32 points of her own and 13 straight for her team to close the third quarter as the Aggies started to find their own offense in the second half, trimming thel ead back to single-digits early in the fourth quarter.
But there was just too much South Carolina and too much Kamillla Cardoso, even in spite of the turnovers. Cardoso scored 17 points, all but six of which in the second half to offer a little comfort every time the Aggies made a push.
Whistles took over in the second half after just 11 total first half doubled to 22 over the course of the second half, but one of South Carolina's better free throw shooting games of the season a 17-of-22 to put it over the top.
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