The
top seed and Associated Press No. 5 Gamecocks lived up to their other
ranking as the No. 1 shooting team in the conference, hitting 57 percent
of their shots in a 67-48 win over ninth-seeded Georgia.
While
its border rival from Columbia, South Carolina was showing off its
shooting prowess, led by a dominant game in the paint, thanks to the 6-4
center tandem of Elem Ibiam (6 of 7 shooting, 10 of 12 points in second
half) and Alaina Coates (6 of 8, 13 points), Georgia (20-11) had a
miserable day from the field. The Bulldogs made only 18 field goals and
the top four scorers for the Athens school - Shacobia Barbee, Khaalidah
Miller, Erika Ford and Tiaria Griffin combined to make only 19 percent
of their shots. It was Georgia’s worst shooting performance of the
season, surpassing the 29 percent it shot against Texas A&M January
12.
“With
our bigs, they have done a tremendous job all season long, being very
efficient from an offensive standpoint.” said Gamecocks coach Dawn
Staley, who was named the league’s coach of the year before the
tournament began.”I thought it was really key, they know they’re going
to get the ball, (and) I thought they just played with renewed energy
coming off the Tennessee loss. It was good to pound that ball inside and
allow our post players to go to work. (The South Carolina defense was)
committed to making sure we chase hard off of screens and I just thought
we played good basketball. A win is a win in our league.”
South
Carolina (27-3) hit its first three field goal attempt shots, and held a
10-2 lead five minutes into the game. Meanwhile, Georgia went a stretch
of 4:12 without a point and misfired on 13 of its first 16 field goal
attempts. That allowed the top seed to build a large first-half cushion.
Reserve Tina Roy assisted on a bucket by Aleighsa Welch and Roy had
three baskets of her own - two 3-pointers and a put back on a miss by
Asia Dozier - and the Gamecocks led 27-9 with just under six minutes
until halftime.
After
going another 5 1/2 minutes without a point, the Bulldogs finally got
things together offensively over a two-minute stretch, thanks to Krista
Donald and Merritt Hempe.
The
pair combined for nine points, including Donald’s three that cut the
deficit to 29-18. That spurt wasn’t nearly enough and despite finishing
that two-minute period hitting 4 of 5 field goals, Georgia still hit
just 8 of 33 from the field over the first 20 minutes.
“We know what kind of team Georgia is, they are incredibly streaky, so we didn’t want them to get on a roll,” Staley said.
South
Carolina, which shot 54 percent from the field in the first, scored the
final six points, four of which came on Dozier-to-Coates hook ups, that
made it a 35-18 game at halftime.
In
the second afternoon quarterfinal, No. 4 seed Kentucky outlasted
fifth-seeded Florida 75-70 to set up a meeting with South Carolina in a
semifinal game today at 12 pm.
Cassie
Peoples hit five 3-pointers for Florida (19-12), including two in the
final two minutes. Peoples last three of the day tied the game at 70-70
with a minute and a half remaining in the second half.
The Gators wouldn’t score again.
Janee
Thompson’s bucket 15 seconds later gave Kentucky (23-7) the lead for
good and Samarie Walker had a big offensive rebound and put back with 28
seconds to play that put the Wildcats up four.
DeNesha
Stallworth was held scoreless in the opening half, but scored all of
her team-high 13 points over the final 20 minutes to lead the Wildcats,
which avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of Florida.
Peoples
and Kayla Lewis led all scorers with 18 points for Florida, which
failed to reach the semifinals for the 16th consecutive season.
Kentucky,
which was swept in two regular season games by South Carolina,
including an 81-58 loss in Lexington February 20, has been tournament
runners-up in three of the last four seasons.
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