The South Carolina women's basketball team was catapulted to victory in its first conference game of the season by senior guard Te-Hina Paopao and sophomore guard Raven Johnson.
All-around performances on both sides of the court from Paopao and Johnson propelled the Gamecocks to a dominant 89-66 win over the Florida Gators.
"I just thought that it was a game in which we went on a big run. They went on a big run," head coach Dawn Staley said. "Overall, our depth really played a role in just opening up the game."
Johnson had a solid night of play, recording 16 points, four rebounds and five assists. She shot an efficient six of nine from the field. Johnson was aggressive and tenacious on the defensive end, adding four steals on the night.
Paopao was an offensive revelation for the Gamecocks. The transfer from Oregon scored 17 points, including shooting four of five from three-point range.
“Paopao hasn't shot the ball well in practice, so when she got one to go down, I think she was feeling it," Staley said. "I thought she was real aggressive in taking shots, and we love for her to do that. And we needed them, in a big way."
Paopao was dominant from three, as she has been all season. She has almost single-handedly fixed South Carolina’s perimeter scoring issues from a year ago, shooting 53% from the field for the season so far.
“She's a big shot-maker," Staley said. "Am I surprised? No. But I knew at some point she was going to start shooting the ball better. Luckily for us, it was in a game and not practice.”
Staley said the two starting guards had an efficient night of play, but she also said that the bigs must become more of a focal point for the team.
“I thought our guards did a great job scoring a basketball, attacking, making threes, but we've got to get our bigs going," Staley said. "We've got to get our bigs scoring a basketball at a better pace than what they did tonight.”
None of Florida’s players could get going offensively, with the exception of senior guard Leilani Correa. Correa scored a career-high 28 points for the Gators but was the team's only player to make any significant scoring contribution.
"Defensively is where we lost some footing in the second," Staley said. "Just in transition, Correa got loose on us in half court."
Florida made its presence known at certain points of the game — especially in the second quarter — but South Carolina was able to pull away in the end.
"We measure (Correa) too much, and she knocked down a couple threes," Staley said. "She went to the basket, we turned the ball over. She got out on the break and scored on us. So we just bear down and started defending a lot better than we did."
Florida's lackluster offensive performance shined through once the Gamecocks found its rhythm on defense. The Gators shot just 32% from the floor on the night as a whole.
South Carolina moves to 1-0 in SEC play, and the Gamecocks have not lost a regular-season game since Dec. 30, 2021. The team has won 55 consecutive regular-season games and 16 straight against Florida.
The Gamecocks' next game is on Sunday, Jan. 7, at 1 p.m. at home against Mississippi State.