Gamecocks earn 71-64 win over MSU, will host Arkansas Sunday
The success of No. 6 South Carolina’s two towering centers has been documented throughout the season.
Centers Elem Ibiam and Alaina Coates, who are second and third on the team in scoring, respectively, have been garnering double and often times triple-teams from defenders this season.
When finding themselves under duress, Ibiam and Coates have been able to rely on the team’s outside shooting to bail them out.
Asia Dozier, who leads the Gamecocks (21-2, 9-1 SEC) with 30 three-pointers, has been an escape valve along with Tiffany Mitchell for when the team has seen bodies start to stack up in the paint.
“I think a lot of teams are going to focus a lot on our post players,” Dozier said after South Carolina’s 78-62 win against Missouri, “because they’ve been playing amazing.”
Mitchell has connected 26 times from three with only 47 attempts. She leads all players who have attempted more than one three-pointer in percentage with a 55 percent mark.
She also owns 55 steals on the season, which is far and away the highest on the team. The sophomore guard has also been able to dish the ball when necessary, racking up 80 assists, good for the top spot on the team in that category.
The Gamecocks picked up another conference road on the win Thursday night, as Mississippi State took them down to the wire. South Carolina was able to sustain a steady lead down the stretch, hitting their last five free throws in a row to ensure the Bulldogs couldn’t creep back in.
Firing on all cylinders offensively and defensively, South Carolina will look to continue its thrashing of the SEC conference when Arkansas (16-7, 3-7 SEC) visits Colonial Life Arena.
“If you go back to the past couple years that we’ve been here, we’ve had maybe a double digit scorer here or there,” head coach Dawn Staley said of the Gamecocks’ dominating offense. “It goes to show how balanced we are from an offensive standpoint. But it also starts on the inside. Our post players are able to establish our post game, and it just filters out to everybody else.”
South Carolina has had at least three players score double-digit points in four of their last five games.
While South Carolina’s defense has received praise for having the third-best scoring defense in the country, Arkansas has been a step better. The Razorbacks sit a slot above the Gamecocks with the No. 2 scoring defense in the country, holding teams to an average of 51.5 points per game.
Six players on Arkansas’ roster have 20 or more steals this season, totaling in a whopping 202 team total. Their defense has been stingy to say the least, allowing no more than 70 points all season.
Though South Carolina’s defense has been on par with some of the best in the nation, Staley still sees areas of improvement for the team.
“We are holding our opponents to a good field goal percentage defense, which I like,” Staley said. “But sometimes when you get into 65 to 70 points, that’s a bit too much, and it puts a lot of pressure on our offense to perform all the time.”