WBB: Gamecocks season ends at hands of Orange
The South Carolina women’s basketball team was plagued by foul trouble, and ultimately fell to fourth-seeded Syracuse, 80-72, Friday night at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
After the Gamecocks embarrassed the Orange with a 31-point win in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, Syracuse was able to pull an upset with a furious second half comeback.
Head coach Dawn Staley said the foul issues threw her team out of sync. All five starters had at least three fouls, including A’ja Wilson, Tiffany Mitchell, and Khadijah Sessions who had four each.
“Us getting into foul trouble, we could not overcome that, and that just kind of stagnated us,” said Staley. “When you have to change your substitution rotation because of fouls, it throws you off a little bit.”
Also see: USC-Syracuse box score
Syracuse played South Carolina twice last season, losing both times. But those games were able to help the Orange tonight.
“I think that playing them two times really gave us a feeling of how they play and what to expect,” said Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman. “So we just tried to combine the two things we did well…to make one game plan for success.”
South Carolina led by as many as 13 in the second quarter and seemed in control of things for the majority of the game. But after a layup by Mitchell but the Gamecocks up 54-43 with 4:06 remaining in the third quarter, Syracuse began to chip away.
The Orange went on a 16-5 run to tie the game at 59 with 6:11 left in the contest on a high-arcing banked 3-pointer from straight away by Alexis Peterson, who had a game-high 26 points. A few minutes later, Cornelia Fondren gave Syracuse its first lead, 63-61, since the 8:13 mark of the second quarter with a floater inside.
Center Alaina Coates responded with four straight points inside to put South Carolina back up by two, but Orange guard Brianna Butler, the nation’s active leading 3-point shooter, put Syracuse back on top for good, 66-65, with 3:01 remaining.
The dagger came with 1:09 left. South Carolina had defended extremely well, but Butler hit a 3-pointer on the left wing despite being double teamed off of a curl to make it 74-68.
“The confidence behind (me from) my teammates and coaches told me to shoot the ball,” said Butler. “I knew it was going in.”
In all, Syracuse shot 12-23 from the floor including 4-7 on 3s since trailing 54-43, while South Carolina went 7-21 overall and 0-11 from deep in the same stretch.
“We couldn’t play like we wanted to play from a defensive standpoint (because of the fouls),” said Staley.
The Gamecocks had no answer for the talented tandem in the Syracuse backcourt in the second half. Butler and Peterson combined to score 29 points after the break on 9-15 shooting.
South Carolina had built its lead in the second quarter thanks to guard Tina Roy who provided a huge spark off the bench in the frame. The senior, who averages 5.8 points per game, scored 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc in the frame to push South Carolina to a 43-33 lead at halftime.
Staley said at Thursday’s press conference that the biggest key of the game would be to pound the ball inside, and South Carolina was certainly able to do so as it scored 40 of its 72 points in the paint. Wilson and Coates combined to shoot 13-17, but late in the game, Syracuse made things difficult inside and forced the Gamecocks to settle for outside jumpers.
“We could’ve tried to get it more inside, but it was open on the outside so we just had to take those shots,” said Roy.
“Credit to South Carolina – they are a very good team and have a dominant inside presence,” said Syracuse guard Brittney Sykes. “When we were going through scout (team), Coach told us to limit their touches on the inside…we did that and that allowed us to win the game.”
Wilson (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Coates (18 points, 16 rebounds) both had double-doubles to lead the Gamecocks. Mitchell scored eight points and had five assists in her final game with South Carolina.
