Women's basketball retires A'ja Wilson's jersey, beats Auburn 83-66

South Carolina women’s basketball retired A’ja Wilson’s jersey to the rafters in a pre-game ceremony with her family and Dawn Staley on the court, and proceeded to take down Auburn 83-66 in its first match-up against an unranked opponent in over three weeks and first game period in nearly a full week.

"We were a little rusty," Staley said. "There's a cadence to our schedule as well. Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Monday, there's a cadence. When the cadence is broken from a bye week, which we'll take, it throws you off a little bit. But Auburn did a great job. They did a really great job defensively, and they made us work."

It was a chamber of commerce day at Colonial Life Arena, a sellout announced months in advance featuring plenty of Wilson’s former Gamecock teammates, current professional ones and people from all corners of the South Carolina women’s basketball landscape. Every media timeout featured some sort of tribute to Wilson, either a highlight pack from her playing days, a replay of her commitment ceremony or just people talking about her.

The basketball game itself felt a sideshow to the grandeur of the day, an understandable break from the grind of a season to celebrate a local legend. But this team did have business to get down to between the montages and pageantry, and it was tough sledding well into the third quarter.

"I think our players really tried to focus in and keep the main thing the main thing for them," Staley said. "But it does get a little distracting when you're competing. The main thing was competing against A'ja's retirement ceremony. It's hard."

An Auburn team (11-1, 2-7 SEC) struggling through the conference schedule had the No. 2 team in the nation locked into a one-possession game in the second half, mostly thanks to a sensational DeYona Gaston performance. Auburn’s senior forward dropped in 31 points on an efficient 22 shots, a problem for South Carolina’s (21-1, 9-0 SEC) defense all day.

On a rare day where South Carolina’s defense could not hold an opponent under 60 points, the offense more than made up for it. A blazing shooting performance saw the Gamecocks make seven of their final eight attempts in the first quarter and shoot 57.1 percent in the game, and one particular stretch completely took the game out of reach.

After the Tigers trimmed the lead to three, South Carolina knocked down 13 of its next 17 shots from the field and made 10-of-11 free throws in the process, widening the lead and seemingly being able to hit from anywhere. Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts were nearly automatic on layups with a combined 31 points, MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 17 of her own and Bree Hall knocked down two 3-pointers during the run as a hard-battling but under-equipped Auburn team could not stop the onslaught.

"It still wasn't the best" Kitts said. "But it got better, and we can see what we did wrong in this game to keep working and get better."

South Carolina turned the early wobbles into a fourth quarter with garbage time, a refreshing change for a team coming off five consecutive games against ranked opponents. This was a disjointed win with a clear —albeit a very positive one — distraction hanging over the performance.

"It was an honor," Edwards said. "We did that in front of her. She literally paved the way for us to be here. I kind of feel like it was a little bit of a full circle moment for her, too, because she is watching what she built, what she created."

The Gamecocks will get one more opportunity to shake out some cobwebs against a team in the bottom tier of the SEC on Thursday at Georgia, before returning to the gauntlet with next Sunday’s showdown at Texas.

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