FINAL: Gamecocks Overcome Sloppy First Half To Defeat Texas A&M 79-68
Today marked the beginning of postseason play for Dawn Staley and South Carolina's women's basketball team, who came into their quarterfinal matchup of the SEC Tournament against the Texas A&M Aggies looking to begin their quest for an eighth tournament title on the right foot. While it wasn't always pretty for the Gamecocks, they found a way to muster enough offense to defeat a scrappy Aggies squad.
In the first half, South Carolina played like they knew it was the beginning of the postseason, and not in a good way, turning over the basketball 10 times in just the first quarter alone, and 15 times in the first 20 minutes of action. Sudden passiveness in the paint area in transition, along with a couple of telegraphed passes around the perimeter. This allowed the Aggies to stay within striking distance despite the fact that they shot 26.7 percent from the floor in the half.
The reason why the Gamecocks went into the break with an 11-point advantage was because of Tessa Johnson, who gave Carolina 9 points off the bench, being one of the more aggressive drivers to the basket, getting to the free-throw line, and also hitting a wide-open three in transition.
Gamecock guard Tessa Johnson receiving instruction from head coach Dawn Staley (8th Mar., 2024)
Jim Dedmon | USA Today Network
In the third quarter, it would turn into a track meet between both teams, with Texas A&M outscoring Carolina 26 to 24 in that stretch. The reason the Aggies managed to keep up with the Gamecocks was because of Aicha Coulibaly, who scored 13 points, primarily at the the free-throw, as she drew several whistles when driving to the paint. However, when they needed to put the game away in the fourth quarter, Dawn Staley's team was able to do so by leaning on their long-time calling card their defense.
While A&M was able to score 20 points in the final 10 minutes, South Carolina made things more difficult for the Aggies, closing off driving lanes at a much more efficient clip. At the same time, Texas A&M ran some full court pressure defense to try and cause some more Gamecock turnovers, but for the most part, Raven Johnson and the backcourt were able to take care of the basketball, leading to easy opportunities at the rim. South Carolina's 11-point win is their 30th of the season overall and they'll face the winner of the second quarterfinal matchup between Alabama - Tennessee that'll take place later this afternoon.
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