Sports
March Madness 2022: Record-setting defense leads South Carolina women to 79-21 win
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South Carolina discovered one solution to resolve its fourth-quarter woes is to carry the opponent to the fewest factors ever in a girl’s NCAA Match sport.
Aliyah Boston scored 10 factors and had 12 rebounds to steer the top-seeded Gamecocks to a 79-21 victory over Howard on Friday.
The 21 factors for the Bison broke the report held by Kansas State which scored 26 in a loss to UConn in 2012. The Gamecocks (30-2) held Howard (21-10) to a NCAA Match report low 4 factors within the first half as they took a 44-4 lead.
South Carolina ahead Aliyah Boston, high, and guard Zia Cooke, backside, take a look at a free ball through the first half of a primary spherical sport in opposition to Howard within the NCAA ladies’s faculty basketball match Friday, March 18, 2022 in Columbia, S.C.
(AP Photograph/Sean Rayford)
“We defend. We had been fairly locked in,” South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley stated.
It was a complete mismatch, even for a No. 1 versus No. 16 seed. The Gamecocks had 30 offensive rebounds to simply six for Howard. The Bison turned the ball over 20 occasions and had been outscored 38 to eight within the paint.
13 of the fourteen South Carolina gamers who received within the sport scored.
However there nonetheless are issues for Staley to fret about. The protection helped masks an off capturing night time for the match’s total high seed. The Gamecocks shot 35% from the sector and simply 8-fo-38 on 3-pointers.
“I do know we will’t have one other sport shooting-wise like we did and anticipate to win basketball video games. We’ve received to discover a solution to get the ball to go within the gap for us,” Staley stated.
South Carolina has been struggling to complete video games. They misplaced to Kentucky 64-62 within the Southeastern Convention closing earlier this month after being outscored 21-7 within the fourth quarter..
Up 60-8 over Howard on the finish of the third quarter, freshman Bree Corridor stated the crew was reminded that champions end video games sturdy.
“We’ve received to maintain constructing on this lead. We’ve received to go on the market and play laborious and maintain doing what we’re doing. The final, latest video games, we haven’t been ending the fourth quarter,” Corridor stated.
South Carolina gained that closing quarter 19-13.
The Gamecocks didn’t maintain Howard scoreless in any quarter. South Carolina did that in 2021, shutting out Texas within the fourth quarter of a 62-34 win in final 12 months’s NCAA Match regional closing.
Iyanna Warren led Howard with eight factors.
Howard coach Ty Grace informed her crew now that they’ve confirmed they are often convention champions, they will take note of how South Carolina dealt with them Friday and see easy methods to take the subsequent step.
“It’s solely up from right here,” Grace stated.
DOUBLE DOUBLE
Boston picked up her twenty fifth straight double-double taking part in simply over 18 minutes.
When the All-American pulled down her tenth rebound with 7:10 to go within the third quarter, she received one of many largest cheers of the day on her dwelling flooring.
Boston didn’t play the ultimate 14 minutes.
HAPPY TO BE HERE
For Howard, spending 4 days at South Carolina, training on their flooring and hanging our close to Staley and her gamers was wonderful.
“It was the chance of a lifetime that not many groups, not many individuals get to expertise. We received to play South Carolina on their dwelling flooring,” Iyanna Warren stated. “We had been simply joyful and excited for the chance.”
Grace stated she loved attending to see Staley and her program up shut. Grace was certainly one of plenty of Black ladies coaches who Staley despatched items of South Carolina’s 2017 championship web.
“We gained an NCAA Match sport, which nobody at Howard had ever accomplished,” Grace stated.
BIG PICTURE
Howard: The Bison do go dwelling with their first NCAA Match win, a 55-51 victory over Incarnate Phrase in Wednesday’s opening spherical. It’s the primary match win for the Mid-Japanese Athletic Convention since South Carolina State gained a play-in sport in 1983.
South Carolina: The 21 factors matched the fewest South Carolina has allowed in its historical past. The Gamecocks have had three durations the place they haven’t allowed some extent, however didn’t add to that whole Friday.
UP NEXT
The Gamecocks play No. 8 seed Miami on Friday. The Hurricanes beat South Florida 78-66 earlier within the day.