Gamecocks wax Ole Miss, set up showdown with Mississippi State
They missed A’ja Wilson, no doubt about it.
So South Carolina made sure she’d be welcomed back in the best way possible – by not depending on her.
The Gamecocks whipped Ole Miss 65-46 on Thursday, doing what they’ve done all year (targeting Alaina Coates), letting the flavor-of-the-week guard pace them early (Allisha Gray) and relying on the ever-improving ball-handling of freshman point guard Ty Harris to keep them ahead of the Rebels’ uptempo pace. Wilson played, and played well – she scored the game’s first bucket on a putback of her own miss and finished with six points and four rebounds.
Yet there was no need to play her 40 minutes, not so soon after missing two games with a bum ankle and with the next game now here.
And it is here, where they can focus all their energy on it – undefeated and fourth-ranked Mississippi State, in Columbia on Monday, for a showdown in what may determine the regular-season championship.
“We know that this will probably be the game that decides it all,” Coates said.
Wilson’s injury allowed the Gamecocks to experiment with a number of looks, and all may come in handy the next game. Gray once again played some power forward and scored eight of her 11 points in the first quarter, staking the lead.
From there, Coates took over with another double-double (15 and 15) and Kaela Davis woke from a shooting slump with 14 points. Harris had five assists with four points while Bianca Cuevas-Moore had seven.
USC (16-1, 6-0 SEC) had trouble lining up with the Rebels’ speed, guards Shandricka Sessom and Alissa Alston constantly getting into the lane. A much smaller team had nearly as many points in the paint as USC (38-30, Gamecocks) but 18 Rebel turnovers became 22 USC points.
Ole Miss (13-6, 2-4) was held to its lowest output of the season, by 11 points. USC was left with a little regret – Dawn Staley said she wished they could have put the game away earlier – but overall it was a complete win.
Now to try and get another.
“I just mentioned it after the game. It’s a big game,” Staley said. “If we want to defend our regular season championship and control our own destiny, they’re the team to do it.”
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Mississippi | 11 | 11 | 13 | 11 | — | 46 |
South Carolina | 20 | 17 | 14 | 14 | — | 65 |
Mississippi (13-6)—Manuel 6-11 1-4 13, Sessom 4-12 3-4 11, Joseph 2-8 1-2 5, Lewis 2-2 0-0 5, Sisk 2-8 0-0 5, Alston 2-5 1-2 5, Glover 1-2 0-2 2, Gibson 0-0 0-0 0, Hart 0-3 0-0 0, Muhammad 0-1 0-0 0, Muhate 0-0 0-0 0, Rodgers 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 19-52 6-14 46.
South Carolina (16-1)—Coates 6-10 3-4 15, Davis 3-11 7-8 14, Gray 4-8 3-4 11, Cuevas-Moore 2-6 2-2 7, Wilson 3-5 0-2 6, Harris 2-3 0-0 4, Cliney 2-6 0-2 4, Bradshaw 0-0 2-2 2, Herbert Harrigan 1-7 0-0 2, Patrick 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 23-57 17-24 65.
3-Point Goals—Mississippi 2-9 (Lewis 1-1, Sisk 1-3, Joseph 0-2, Sessom 0-2, Glover 0-1), South Carolina 2-9 (Davis 1-2, Cuevas-Moore 1-2, Gray 0-1, Harris 0-1, Cliney 0-2, Patrick 0-1). Assists—Mississippi 12 (Joseph 3), South Carolina 12 (Harris 5). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Mississippi 31 (Sessom 7), South Carolina 41 (Coates 15). Total Fouls—Mississippi 20, South Carolina 12. A—12,518.
This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 8:14 AM with the headline "Gamecocks wax Ole Miss, set up showdown with Mississippi State."