Lady Gamecocks attempt to stay undefeated in road games
South Carolina’s women’s basketball team won just three road games during the 2010-2011 season.
Slated to travel to face Xavier tonight, it has the chance to match that total through just eight games this year.
“The challenge is that we’ll be at their house and we won’t be home,” said senior guard Markeshia Grant. “At the same time, I think we’re prepared because they’ve prepared for us the whole week, so I think we’ll come out victorious.”
Following a convincing 52-24 win over Presbyterian Sunday, the Gamecocks travel to play a Xavier team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season but has undergone a coaching change this year and gotten off to a sluggish 2-3 start. Coach Dawn Staley was 7-4 against the Musketeers during her time coaching at Temple, but USC is 0-2 in the all-time series with Xavier.
“They’re a little bit different,” Staley said. “I think after losing two All-Americans you’re going to be different in who you have lining up. They’re pretty tough and hard-nosed — they play tough. It should be a good challenge for us on the road.”
Against Presbyterian, the starting five for Staley got off to a sluggish start in the second-half, prompting her to pull them for the second-team with 15:30 to play. The bench went on a 13-0 run and finished with 42 of the team’s 52 points.
Despite the struggles, Staley will keep the same starting five for Xavier.
“We’re going to stick with them right now, but obviously they’re on a short leash,” Staley said. “We’ve got people that are ready to rock ‘n’ roll and play and be productive, and we’ve got to use them. Hopefully everybody gets up to par to where we’re all playing well at one time, and once that happens, I think we’ll be a pretty good basketball team.”
Though Staley is not concerned with her starters from a defensive standpoint, she is looking to see more offensive production from them.
“Sometimes you’ve got to let someone see the game a little bit differently,” Staley said. “That doesn’t mean that they won’t ever go back, but sometimes you’ve got to change it up a little bit. Players can get a little confident and get a little different look at the game before they actually start in a game. Hopefully we won’t get to that point — they’ll be productive and knock down some shots and they’ll start clicking a little bit from an offensive standpoint.”
Furthermore, Staley sees the competition between the bench and the starters as something that will be beneficial to the squad down the road as it gives her a chance to place players in the position that suits the team best.
“It’s pretty competitive,” Staley said. “The first team used to pretty much take care of the second team, but they started playing a lot together. I think we’re very fortunate in that. We moved Tina Roy around a little bit. We moved her from wing to point guard ... she’s found some rhythm at the point guard. That’s given us a little different look — she’s bigger, she can shoot the ball and, for the most part, she’s been handling pressure fairly well.”
A win over Xavier would give USC a 7-1 record, its best start to a season since the 2003-04 campaign. Since the Gamecocks lost 55-50 to Penn State, they’ve won two straight by margins of at least 19 points. They hope to continue their rebound from the loss on the road, where they’re currently undefeated.
“After the performance against Penn State, it showed us a lot about ourselves; that we can compete at that level” Grant said. “It just shows us that we are coming full circle and we’re becoming a complete team so it just showed us that we’re going to be able to compete with that caliber of play.”