Why Tessa Johnson’s first South Carolina double-double meant so much to junior guard

COLUMBIA — Tessa Johnson giggled before she said, “This is going to sound very bad.

“But I’ve been trying to rebound this season, it just sometimes doesn’t work out for me and today it did.”

Johnson had first career double-double for South Carolina women’s basketball and found herself fielding questions about rebounding, a uncommon topic for the shooting guard.

She scored 14 points with her career-high 10 rebounds in the 103-34 victory over No. 16 seed Southern in the March Madness first-round game on March 21 in Colonial Life Arena.

It wasn’t that the junior guard woke up on the morning of her third Women’s NCAA Tournament opener and decided to start rebounding. But with a recent shooting slump, she was intentional about helping her team in other ways.

“I just wanted to do more than just scoring out there,” Johnson said. “I feel like I can do a little bit more out there and really wanted to focus on rebounding this game.”

Coach Dawn Staley’s top-seeded Gamecocks (32-3) will now play either No. 8 Clemson or No. 9 Southern Cal after Johnson’s contributions helped push them to the second round.

Johnson’s height at 6-feet does occasionally give her an advantage against some guards but given how frequently South Carolina runs in transition, it’s normally Johnson sprinting down the court instead of crashing the boards.

She leads the SEC in 3-point shooting at 44.1%, which is 10th in the nation.

Her signature spot-up shooting was highlighted on a grander scale in the 79-72 win over LSU on Feb. 14, when she started 4-of-5 in the first half, forcing Tigers coach Kim Mulkey to scream “Who can guard Tessa” at her team.

Johnson then went 10-of-34 across the next six games (29%).

To start the game against the Jaguars (20-14) it looked like Johnson hadn’t quite shaken off the slump, starting 0-of-2 from the 3-point line. She went to the locker room in the first quarter and returned three minutes later after taping two of her fingers.

She hit two 3-pointers in the third quarter and two in the fourth.

“Good I mean, there was like a cover on the hoop for everyone in the first half,” said Johnson when asked how breaking out of the 3-point slump felt. “The second half we picked it up defensively and I think that just helped us offensively.”

By halftime she was only three shy of tying her career-high in rebounds with seven, but grabbed four in the third quarter

“I wasn’t thinking about a double-double until I realized I was at eight points, eight rebounds but I really was just looking at my rebounding,” said Johnson, who is averaging a career-high 3.3. “I don’t rebound very well but now I’m getting up there.”

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at LKesin@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky‪@bylulukesin.bsky.social‬