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***2020-21 #5/4 South Carolina (5-1) vs Florida (7-1) Game Thread***

ConwayGamecock

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#5/4 SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS (5-1, 0-0) VS FLORIDA GATORS (7-1, 0-0)​



#5/4 SOUTH CAROLINA (5-1) VS. FLORIDA (7-1)
4 p.m.  |  COLUMBIA, S.C.  |  COLONIAL LIFE ARENA (3,500)

GAME DAY INFO | South Carolina Game Notes (PDF) | WATCH: ESPNU | LISTEN: 107.5 The Game | Live Stats | Media Availability

COLUMBIA, S.C. – After seeing its SEC opener against Ole Miss postponed due to COVID-19 management requirements associated with Ole Miss' program, South Carolina women's basketball will now host Florida on Thu., Dec. 31, at 4 p.m. at Colonial Life Arena. The game will air on ESPNU. 
 
Thursday's game replaces the originally scheduled meeting between the Gamecocks and Gators, which had been set for Feb. 25. The Gators were originally scheduled to play at Vanderbilt, which had to postpone its first three SEC contests due to positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within its program.

https://gamecocksonline.com/news/2020/12/30/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-sec-opener-thursday-on-espnu.aspx

 
Supposed to be raining from now through the weekend.

Watching the game will be a good way for me to pass the time.

 
Gamecocks take the 14-6 lead after the first Period of a poor-shooting effort for both teams. Shaking off the rust: this is the first game for the Gamecocks after December 17th, and only the 2nd game since December 6th.....

 
Gamecocks surge in the 2nd Quarter behind a dominant Aliyah Boston and lead 39-18 into the halftime break. Boston already has her double-double with 19 pts shooting 8-12 and 11 rebounds! The Gamecocks shot 11-20 (55%) in the 2nd period to improve on their 1st period shooting....

 
Florida responds with a dominant 3rd Quarter, out-scoring the Gamecocks 29-18 to pull within 10 pts as Gamecocks now lead 57-47 through 3 quarters. Florida shot 12-19 and 4-6 from the 3 to storm back into the game.

 
Gamecocks win their SEC opening game against Florida 75-59 to improve to 6-1, 1-0 on the season. Aliyah Boston and Zia Cooke led the way for the Gamecocks who otherwise struggled to get on track offensively. Boston may have earned herself some "Player of the Week" mentions with her output, scoring a career high 28 pts on 11-18 shooting, with 16 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals. The Gamecocks were an abysmal 3-16 from behind the 3-pt arc, but Boston made all 3 of those herself, shooting 3-5 from outside.

Cooke was right behind Boston scoring 26 pts on 10-22 shooting, with 5 assists and 2 steals. Victaria Saxton added a near-dbl-dbl with 9 pts, 12 boards, 3 blocks and 3 steals. Destanni Henderson had an "interesting" stat line with only 2 pts on 1-7 shooting, but also with a team-leading 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals.

After Boston and Cooke's combined 21-40 (.525) shooting, the rest of the team shot 10-39 (.256) and 0-8 outside the 3-pt line for the game.

Florida (7-2, 0-1) was led by an unstoppable Lavender Briggs, who shot 10-20 and scored 23 pts with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Florida's bench outscored USC's 15-6, which was unusual for the Gamecocks who typically have strong bench scoring under Dawn Staley. Today Boston and Cooke had to carry the team offensively in a huge way....

 
We won, but I was worried by the looks on the girls' faces after the game.

They were clearly out-muscled by the Gators in the paint just like they were against NC State.

 
Couple of pending issues that I hope are just rust related...outside shooting -- Boston can't be our 3-point threat, Cooke has a really good mid-length jumper.  It also appears that once again we are having problems with layups.  Our defense and transition gets us lot of layup opportunities, we need to convert.  We coulda/shoulda beat this Florida team by 20, easily.

Rebounding and shot blocking appears to be the strength of this team.

 
FurmanCock said:
Couple of pending issues that I hope are just rust related...outside shooting -- Boston can't be our 3-point threat, Cooke has a really good mid-length jumper.  It also appears that once again we are having problems with layups.  Our defense and transition gets us lot of layup opportunities, we need to convert.  We coulda/shoulda beat this Florida team by 20, easily.

Rebounding and shot blocking appears to be the strength of this team.
Click to expand...


I agree Boston can't be our primary 3-pt threat, because we need her inside the paint grabbing offensive rebounds. But as long as she is going to shoot like that, I wouldn't mind her taking a few from time to time. Cooke came into the game shooting around 55% from behind the arc, so yesterday's 0-3 effort was hopefully an anomaly. The team also had been shooting pretty decently - not great but solid - from the 3, so hopefully the rust played a role there. Henderson had a rare offensive disappearance yesterday, and she came into the game shooting 44% from behind the arc (she was 0-2 yesterday), so I think yesterday's effort was atypical for what we'll see the rest of the season. I sure hope so.

I also agree with the layups - we were horrible in that area against NC State, and it seemed like the team fixed the issues against Temple, but maybe they fell out of the rhythm again with the long lay-off.

We were beating this Florida team by 19 when they hit that 3-pointer at the buzzer, so I'm not too concerned there. The Gator's 29-point 3rd Period effort was easily the most points scored against us in a single period this season thus far, and I doubt Florida rates up there with the NC States, Gonzagas and Iowa States we've played thus far. So again I'll write this one off as a long lay-off anomaly, until I see it happening more often....

 
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