Gamecocks' mental toughness to be tested as regular season winds down
The South Carolina Gamecocks have shown they have the talent to contend for a national championship and now they must show they have mental fortitude to match.
Should the Gamecocks beat No.14 Kentucky on Sunday they’ll share a piece of the SEC title. Should they win two of their last three, the Gamecocks will take the title outright. This leads to a bye in the SEC tournament, where winning could help them secure an overall number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. That top seed could help them avoid seeing one of the two teams nipping at their heels until the finals.
As the dominoes are set to fall in place, USC head coach Dawn Staley said it’s all about “locking in” to get the job done and get not just a piece of the SEC title, but the whole thing.
“Nobody likes to share,” she said with a smile. “So we’re going to treat it like an only child where we just want it all and in order for us to do that, we have to play well.”
They’ll take on a Kentucky team that is rolling after pulling off the 73-62 upset over Mississippi State and followed it up with a 94-52 win over Ole Miss. Staley said they were able to attack from the opening tip last game.
"We hopped on them fairly quick we didn't really give them time to recover,” she said. “By the time they adjusted to how we were playing, the game was out of hand."
Rhyne Howard, the Wildcats’ prolific scorer will be the obvious focal point of the offense and will be guarded by Brea Beal. Against Mississippi State, Kentucky showed that they can be a team led by Howard rather than carried as Chasity Patterson had 15 points and Jaida Roper scored 14 in the upset. Staley said she expects to play a different team than the one they hosted in January.
"We know that it's gonna be a hostile environment we know that it's probably not gonna be as lopsided as it was,” she said. “They'll be ready to play. Everybody's gotten better. Everyone's gotten better since January and I think in a lot of regards we've gotten better and we just gotta stay at a high level and approach at that high level."
Tip-off is at 2 p.m.