{"id":81238,"date":"2025-01-20T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/south-carolina-womens-basketball-three-things-we-learned-last-week-2\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T08:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T14:15:00","slug":"south-carolina-womens-basketball-three-things-we-learned-last-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/south-carolina-womens-basketball-three-things-we-learned-last-week-2\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina women\u2019s basketball: Three things we learned last week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, South Carolina women\u2019s basketball gutted out a road win at Alabama<\/a> and blew out Oklahoma at home<\/a> to stay undefeated in the SEC. What did we learn from the impressive wins?<\/p>\n

1. South Carolina\u2019s defense is still elite<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Carolina\u2019s offense can still be inconsistent (although there certainly weren\u2019t any problems on Sunday). Last week, there were turnover issues. Against Alabam, it was poor shooting 3-20 on threes). There have been games where they only had single-digit assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if the other team can\u2019t score. You don\u2019t have to search hard to find a team that won a national championship with an elite defense and inconsistent offense. The Gamecocks did it in 2022.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s defense isn\u2019t as good as that defense, which had Aliyah Boston and Brea Beal, two of the best defenders in program history, plus Destanni Henderson and Kamilla Cardoso. But the 2025 Gamecock offense, despite some inconsistencies, is also much better.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown:<\/p>\n

WIN TICKETS: Kim Mulkey and undefeated LSU are coming to Columbia on Thursday<\/a><\/p>\n

2. South Carolina is resilient<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gamecocks haven\u2019t been challenged much since the UCLA game almost two months ago, so it was fair to wonder how they would handle a tight game. We have an answer.<\/p>\n

South Carolina was seriously tested by Alabama and aced the exam. The offense was shaky all game, and shots weren\u2019t falling. Alabama cut the lead to four late in the third quarter and had momentum and the home crowd behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks didn\u2019t flinch. Joyce Edwards scored to end the third, and they went to her repeatedly in the fourth quarter. She scored 11 of her career-high 21 points in the fourth, and the Gamecocks finished the game on a 12-2 run that gave them a deceptive 76-58 win.<\/p>\n

We learned that South Carolina has its closer in Edwards, and as a group, they understand what they need to do to win.<\/p>\n

Get the free GamecocksW newsletter: Don\u2019t rely on search engines and social media for your South Carolina women\u2019s basketball info<\/a><\/p>\n

3. The SEC Freshman of the Year race is heating up<\/strong><\/p>\n

With apologies to Florida\u2019s Liv McGill, it\u2019s down to a two-person race for the conference\u2019s Freshman of the Year: Joyce Edwards and Mikayla Blakes. On Sunday, Blakes scored the game-winning putback in Vanderbilt\u2019s 71-70 upset of #15 Tennessee, while Edwards led South Carolina in scoring again.<\/p>\n

Blakes has the advantage in pure numbers. She\u2019s averaging 20.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.4 steals. By comparison, Edwards averages 12.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Blakes is playing about 10 minutes more per game than Edwards. Plus, being the leading scorer on the No. 2 team in the country deserves some bonus points.<\/p>\n

Discuss South Carolina women\u2019s basketball on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

The post South Carolina women\u2019s basketball: Three things we learned last week<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, South Carolina women\u2019s basketball gutted out a road win at Alabama and blew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}