Gamecocks Fire on All Cylinders to Knock Off No. 18/16 North Carolina
COLUMBIA,
S.C. – South Carolina used efficient offense, stifling defense and
strong rebounding to upend No. 18/16 North Carolina 79-48 in the
Carolina’s Challenge Sunday afternoon at the Myrtle Beach Convention
Center. The Gamecocks (9-2) exploded out of the gate and never looked
back, executing the game plan to perfection from the opening tip. While
the offense surged, shooting 58.3 percent in the first half, the
defense was just as electric throughout the contest as South Carolina
held the nation’s highest scoring defense 39.5 points below its season
average. It was the third-largest margin of victory over a nationally
ranked team in Gamecock history.
“This is a good win for a
team,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “Our players have
been working extremely hard and put in position to compete and win, and
win in pretty good fashion. Our defense has been pretty steady.
Some other players have been stepping up from time to time on the
offensive end. We got our production from people we can count on to get
production from. So, it was a good, quality win in that we got
La’Keisha [Sutton] (going). Ieasia [Walker] played well. Although she
didn’t score a lot of points, she jump-started our defense. She
controlled our basketball team and the tempo of the game. It was great
for everybody to play well.”
While the Gamecocks built their
early-season success on defense, it was the offense that proved early
that the Tar Heels would have their hands full. South Carolina opened
with an 11-0 run starting with a pair of 3-pointers from Markeshia
Grant. She needed the next two on a driving layup, and La’Keisha Sutton
buried a 3 from the right win for the early double-digit advantage.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels, who entered the game out-rebounding opponents
by 9.5 boards per game, were limited to one shot on their offensive
possessions.
After UNC pulled within 13-5, the Gamecocks put
together a 12-2 run, forcing three of the Tar Heels’ 17 turnovers in
the stretch. Ashley Bruner got the surge started with a move on the
left block then took a charge from North Carolina’s Chay Shegog on the
other end. Ieasia Walker turned that miscue into a 3-pointer from the
top of the arc, and Aleighsa Welch stuck back a Gamecock miss for a
20-5 advantage. Shegog interrupted the run with a bucket, but the
Gamecocks went right back at it with Sancheon White hitting a long
jumper from the left side. Grant hit a free throw after another North
Carolina turnover, and after two more one-and-done possessions from the
Tar Heels, Sutton sank a long jump shot for a 25-7 lead with 11:17 left
in the half.
The lead twice stretched to 21 before the Tar Heels
put together a run that cut South Carolina’s lead to 12 with 3:03 left
in the period. Candace Wood scored six of the 11 points during the
stretch, while She’la White’s free throws delivered the final margin of
36-24. The Gamecocks responded decisively, starting with Sutton’s 3
from the left wing keying a 14-3 surge highlighted by four layups and
an end-of-the-half 3-pointer from Tina Roy.
Trailing 50-27 at
the break, North Carolina would get no closer in the second half as the
Gamecock defense continued to frustrate the typically high-scoring Tar
Heels. The Gamecocks’ 31-point winning margin was the highest since the
then-No. 23 Gamecocks upended then-No. 16 North Carolina by 32 (85-53)
on Dec. 20, 2011.
South Carolina shot 47.1 percent from the
field in the game, including 42.9 percent from 3-point range, and
out-rebounded the Tar Heels 47-30. Walker’s six assists led a
season-best effort of 19 from the team. Sutton’s 21 and Grant’s 20 led
the offense, making it the first South Carolina game with multiple
20-point scorers since February 2010. Welch joined the senior duo in
double digits with 10 points to go with her game-high six rebounds.
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