South Carolina suffers 1st SEC loss to Aggies
Just about every time the South Carolina women’s basketball team has been tested this season, they have risen to the occasion.
The No. 8 Gamecocks (16-2, 4-1 SEC), who sit in second place in the Southeastern Conference, are nearly perfect this season.
Head coach Dawn Staley’s squad owns wins over top conference opponents Vanderbilt and Kentucky — each in the top six in the conference standings. South Carolina’s other two conference wins came against Arkansas and Auburn, who are a combined 24-9 so far this season.
After finding themselves down by 19 to No. 25 Texas A&M (14-4, 4-0 SEC) at one point Thursday night, South Carolina clawed back to force overtime with the Aggies. However, their comeback attempt was cut short by the Texas A&M squad who would hold on for a 67-65 overtime victory.
The Gamecocks’ overall success this season has not gone unnoticed by Staley; however, she is quick to keep her team in check.
“I think they’re handling it well,” Staley said of the Gamecocks breaking into the top-10 rankings. “You also want them to enjoy the journey, because four or five years ago, we were that much further down. But it’s not to the point where we’re thinking we’re God’s gift to this league.”
South Carolina’s 16-2 start comes on the heels of back-to-back 25-win seasons, the first since the Pam Parsons era in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Staley’s progress has been marked by a steady increase of wins since she took over in 2008. In her initial year at the helm, the Gamecocks won 10 games, followed by 14, and 18 at the end of the 2010-11 season.
Although the team has reached the 25-win benchmark in the past two seasons, each year they averaged between 61 and 62 points per game through 18 contests — the Gamecocks’ current spot in the season. This year, through 18 games, South Carolina is averaging just over 74 points per game.
A large part of the Gamecocks’ offensive success this season has owed to freshman center Alaina Coates, who is averaging 12.1 points per game.
The Irmo native is coming off the third SEC Freshman of the Week selection of her rookie season. Coates has been big in the paint this season, registering 144 total rebounds, good enough to lead the Gamecocks in that category. Her 49 offensive rebounds, the second highest total on the team, have proven advantageous for South Carolina’s season-long offensive onslaught.
With Alabama (8-9, 1-3 SEC) scheduled to visit the Colonial Life Arena on Sunday, the Gamecocks will look to improve upon their stellar conference record. The Crimson Tide are losers of three out of their last five games, including an out-of-conference blemish against Princeton.
The Gamecocks outrank Alabama in nearly every offensive category, save for three-point shots made and attempted. South Carolina owns the edge in percentage, however, shooting .354 from beyond the arc, compared to Alabama’s .318.
The difference in the game could be the Gamecocks’ defense, which Staley admits surprised her at the beginning of conference play.
“It has improved,” Staley said. “This team [during] the first couple games of conference play really caught me by surprise, because they just played with incredible relentlessness. And that will take us far.”