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GameCock Fanatics 2021 Southeastern Conference Tournament Central: Tournament Bracket Is Set

ConwayGamecock

ConwayGamecock

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This will be the catch-all thread for the 2021 Women's Basketball Southeastern Conference Tournament. Only Gamecock games will get their dedicated game threads - all other SECT games and relevant news will get updated in this thread, if possible. Hopefully it's a full and long-standing thread, right up to the South Carolina Gamecocks winning their 6th SECT Championship in 7 seasons!

The SEC Office has finalized the bracket for the 2021 Conference Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC:


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The Gamecocks will have some challenges: we beat Alabama twice this season by 17 pts and then by 24 pts. That should not be a problem. Missouri was a 15-pt. win and also shouldn't be a big issue. So the 1st RD for us - the Quarterfinals Friday - should be fine.

The Semifinals Saturday will be where the challenges arrive. The #11 Seed Mississippi Rebels lost to USC recently by 25 pts and looked bad doing it. It was their 3rd SEC loss in a row that included a 10-pt. loss to Arkansas in Fayettville. They looked like they were collapsing, then they upset #19 ranked Kentucky Sunday in Lexington! But then, they had already beat UK earlier in the season, and I think were able to out-match the Wildcats on the boards like we tend to do, and UK's top rebounder is Rhyne Howard, and she's also their top scorer and when she peters out late in games, the entire team seems to peter out as well.

I still think #6 Seed Arkansas will be too much offensive firepower for the Rebels, even though the Razorbacks' defense is by design not strong. The Razorbacks have had one of the better seasons in 2020-21 they've had in recent years, while though Ole Miss has improved over last season, they've still struggled going 10-10 on their season. So I expect to see Arkansas face the Vols in the Quarterfinals. For our own Quarterfinal, as I stated above I think that we should be fine against either #10 Seed Missouri or #7 Seed Alabama if the team comes ready to play. I think we should expect to see the Vols in our semifinal game.

TENNESSEE: of course that's a loss that still stings. It ended a program-record regular-season SEC win streak. After moving out to a 12-pt halftime lead, Tennessee jumped on the Gamecocks in the 3rd Period and played like the team with the most energy and the most desire. The Gamecocks played like they were just dog-tired - especially in the late stages of the game - and shot 10-33 (30.3%) after halftime.

On the other side of the bracket, the biggest contenders are of course #1 Seed Texas A&M and #4 Georgia. I don't think either Auburn or Florida will put up much of a protest, and Kentucky looks like they want the season to end already, although they have beaten UGA earlier. I think UGA has more to play for than UK seems to, and should win this game.

Texas A&M: the Aggies only have 1 loss on the season, and that was to LSU. That seemed to have been a wake-up call for the Aggies, who have steam-rolled the rest of the season to the SEC title. Miss State must feel it is decades removed from their successes under Vic Schaefer, and sadly Nikki McCray-Penson's first season as Bulldog head coach has been pretty rough. They ended their regular-season losing to Missouri by 20 pts in Starkville. I can't believe this team will enter the tournament with much fire.

BUT the last game that Miss State DID win, they won over LSU. So again, who knows? Does LSU want to see Texas A&M again?? I bet the Aggies sure want to see THEM again.

I feel the Aggies' road to the Championship Game is the smoother one between them and USC. The Gamecocks will have to find some resolve they haven't shown a lot of during the season, to get back to their 6th SECT Championship Game in the last 7 seasons. Their losses to Tennessee and the Aggies were by 8 points each: certainly they have the talent to win this whole thing. They just have to want to win it more than the other teams.....

 
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Sleeping through Texas A&M and UT? I don't understand that comment. They fought their hearts out. We went through offensive slumps and had some costly turnovers that cost us both games. It had nothing to do with effort.

 
kingofnerf said:
Is the attendance limitation off for the tournament?
Click to expand...


Doesn't look like it:

The tournament will be held March 3-7 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. The tournament will have a limited seating capacity of 3,000 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The 2021 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament is a MOBILE TICKETS ONLY event. All fans will need a mobile ticket to enter the stadium. Using your phones web browser all mobile tickets issued by the participating teams or the conference can be accessed thru the SEC mobile sign in at https://am.ticketmaster.com/sec/#/ . All tickets bought thru Ticketmaster can be accessed thru www.ticketmaster.com or the Ticketmaster app.
Click to expand...


https://www.secsports.com/article/30956404/sec-issues-fan-advisory-women-basketball-tournament

 
This will be the last SECT held in Greenville for a while. They are already contracted to hold next year's tournament in Nashville, TN, and also for 2026. In between could see a return to Greenville - the SEC has liked the results in recent years - but they've already held the SECT there 3 yrs in a row and 4 of the last 5 seasons (2018 was also in Nashville), so I would expect they'd try to give other SEC regions a chance......

 
Ace Dilcock said:
Conway - upon, further review, you overlooked Arky, my second favorite team in the SEC. The will likely make short work of lower seeded Ole Miss and will cause problems for UT. When they are hitting their threes, they can play with anyone.

USCMM, I did not mean to imply that the ladies did not play hard when I said that they were sleepwalking. They always play hard. It was more of a mental thing - their heads were not in the game. That is not unusual when you lose a game in tough fashion like the UCONN game, If that game had gone our way, I believe that we would be a one loss team now, and our SEC streak would still be intact.
Click to expand...


Wow!

Heheh, no Ace, what happened was I totally screwed that up. Thanks for pointing it out for me. I somehow got the teams that play to meet against the Gamecocks - Missouri and Alabama, and who play to face Tennessee - Ole Miss and Arkansas - mixed up and switched. So I started talking about Tennessee possibly playing Alabama, etc. And Alabama stole Arkansas' spot, and that was how Arkansas got lost in that shuffle. I fixed my preview now. Thanks again - I must have posted that too late in the night......

 
WEDNESDAY'S GAME:

Game 1 - Wednesday March 3, 2021 4:00 PM

#13 Auburn Tigers (5-19, 0-15) vs #12 Florida Gators (11-12, 3-11)

FINAL - Florida 69 Auburn 62

Florida's leading scorer Lavender Briggs had already been lost for the season late in the regular-season schedule to a foot injury, but the #12 Seed Florida Gators rode the scoring of their #2 leader Kiki Smith to a 69-62 victory over the #13 Seed Auburn Tigers in the opening game of the SEC Tournament. Smith scored 19 points, and added 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the win. The senior also went over the career 1,000-point threshold in the 4th Quarter in the process. Alaina Rice led Auburn (5-19, 0-15) with 15 pts, and All-SEC Post Unique Thompson added 14 pts, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals in the losing effort.

Florida (11-12, 3-11) will now move on to play #5 Seed Kentucky (16-7, 9-6) in Game 3 of the tournament, which will start 25 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2 between #8 Seed LSU and #9 Seed Mississippi State - that game starts tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM.

 
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THURSDAY'S GAMES:

Game 2 - Thursday March 4, 2021 11:00 AM

#9 Mississippi State Bulldogs (10-8, 5-7) vs #8 Louisiana State Tigers (8-12, 6-8)

FINAL - LSU 71 Miss State 62

The #9 Seed Mississippi State Bulldogs have had a violent drop back down to Earth in former Gamecock assistant coach Nikki McCray-Penson's first year as Head Coach supplanting Vic Schaefer in Starkville. The Bulldogs were unceremoniously escorted to the SECT exits without even consolation prizes by the #8 Seed LSU Tigers 71-62. The Bulldogs (10-9, 5-7) may not even rate the WNIT this postseason, much less the NCAAT.

LSU (9-12, 6-8) was led by Ryann Payne with 17 pts, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Khayla Pointer added 14 pts, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals, and Sarah Shematsi added 13 pts from 4-6 shooting from behind the 3-pt line. The Bulldogs were led by Jessika Carter with 14 pts and 6 rebounds, and Rickea Jackson adding 14 pts as well.

Game 3 - Thursday March 4, 2021 TBD

#12 Florida Gators (11-12, 3-11) vs #5 Kentucky Wildcats (16-7, 9-6)

FINAL - Kentucky 73 Florida 64

The #12 Seeded Florida Gators were determined and gave a great fight, leading into the final quarter of play, but the #5 Seed Kentucky Wildcats stormed the final period out-scoring the Gators 27-15 to pull away with the 73-64 victory. The game was a story of star scorers for each team - Florida (11-13, 3-11) for most of the season had two such scorers, but leading scorer Lavender Briggs was lost late in the season to a foot injury. That left Kiara Smith to carry the load, and she did her best, scoring 36 pts on 14-27 shooting, with 9 rebounds. That bested the Wildcat's (17-7, 9-6) own top scoring star, SEC Player of the Year Rhyne Howard, who scored 27 pts on 10-15 shooting, with 6 rebounds and 4 steals, but her team was able to provide the better support.

Game 4 - Thursday March 4, 2021 6:00 PM

#10 Missouri (9-10, 5-9) vs #7 Alabama (15-8, 8-8)

FINAL - Alabama 82 Missouri 74

It was a game of more balanced offense versus the one big scorer, and the balanced offense won. Five #7 Seed Alabama Crimson Tide players scored in double digits compared to just two for the #10 Seed Missouri Tigers, as Alabama defeated Missouri 82-74. For Alabama (16-8, 8-8), the Tide was led by Ariyah Copeland's 22 pts, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. Megan Abrams added 19 pts, 4 boards and 5 assists, and Jordan Lewis added 16 pts, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Hannah Barber and Jasmine Walker chipped in 11 pts each.

For Missouri (9-11, 5-9), Aijha Blackwell had a monster game with 28 pts and 12 rebounds, but only had one other Tiger score in dbl digits in reserve Shug Dickson with 12 pts and 8 assists.

 

Game 5 - Thursday March 4, 2021 TBD

#11 Mississippi (10-10, 4-10) vs #6 Arkansas (19-7, 9-6)

FINAL - Mississippi 69 Arkansas 60

In the battle of 2021 First Team All-SEC members, the winner was perhaps not the one most expected: Ole Miss' Shakira Austin led #11 Seed Mississippi with 29 pts on 10-16 shooting with 13 rebounds and 3 blocks as the Rebels upset #6 Seed Arkansas 69-60 in the final Thursday night game. The Razorbacks' Chelsea Dungee scored 22 pts but needed 24 shots to get there, only converting 9 of them. Dungee also had 3 steals.

Arkansas (19-8, 9-6) was out-scored by Ole Miss (11-10, 4-10) 33-15 in the 1st and 4th quarters, which spelled doom for the Razorbacks.

 
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Our side of the bracket is hard to predict. We have a lot of teams that are formidable when hot -- specifically Arkansas. And Ole Miss and Tennessee are probably two of the most improved teams as the season progressed.

If I I had to predict, this is what I think will happen on our side of the bracket:

Thursday games:

Alabama beats Missouri

Arkansas beats Ole Miss

Friday games:

South Carolina beats Alabama

Tennessee beats Arkansas

Saturday games:

South Carolina beats Tennessee

I see Tennessee as matchup nightmares for Arkansas. Even so, I could see them upsetting Tennessee if they play like maniacs -- and we all know they're capable. But I believe the rebounding and length of UT gives them an edge on a normal day, so I'm inclined to believe they'll win. UT won the regular season matchup 88-73 back in early Jan.

I am hesitant to pick us as the winners in a hypothetical rematch against UT as well. They're a team that matches up well against our interior. I am inclined to believe that Dawn will use a different strategy on this rematch. For example, I don't think we will use Eniya Russell as much. I believe the original strategy was to use her height against UTs tall guards but I don't think it panned out like Dawn hoped. I don't know what she'll do but I feel it'll be a whole new look.

 
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We tend to struggle against teams with more than one physical big in the paint.

It took a few years for Ty Harris to be a solid aggressive PG for us.

But I also know this was the #1 recruiting class in the country last year and they will learn quicker than most other players to get past any challenges thrown their way.

 
FRIDAY'S QUARTERFINAL GAMES:

Game 6 - Friday March 5, 2021 11:00 AM

#8 Louisiana State (9-12, 6-8) vs #1 Texas A&M (22-1, 13-1)

FINAL - Texas A&M 77 LSU 58

A game that started out low scoring with poor shooting, turned into a route once the #1 Seed Texas A&M Aggies got their shooting touch back in the 2nd half, as they defeat the #8 Seed LSU Tigers 77-58. The first half saw a 32-26 Aggie lead as both teams shot below 30% well into the 2nd Quarter, but Texas A&M (23-1, 13-1) started to find their mark in the 2nd Qtr. and it continued for the 2nd half as they out-scored LSU (9-13, 6-8) 45-32 to pull away.

Five Aggies scored in double digits led by Kayla Wells' 16 points and 6 rebounds. LSU however got their scoring from one main player in Khayla Pointer with 26 pts, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, but it wasn't enough.

Game 7 - Friday March 5, 2021 2:30 PM

#5 Kentucky (17-7, 9-6) vs #4 Georgia (18-5, 10-5)

FINAL - Georgia 78 Kentucky 66

2021 SEC Player of the Year Rhyne Howard put forth a valiant effort in scoring 33 points on 13-24 shooting along with 5 rebounds and 3 steals, but it wasn't enough to overcome #4 Seed Georgia, and the #5 Seed Kentucky Wildcats (17-8, 9-6) falls to the Bulldogs 78-66 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Quarterfinals. Howard also had Chasity Patterson contribute with 11 pts and 6 rebounds, but it wasn't enough against the Bulldogs (19-5, 10-5), who had four players score in double digits, led by Maya Caldwell and Jenna Staiti's 20 points, Que Morrison's 14 pts, and Gabby Connally's 13 pts.

Georgia will face Texas A&M in their semifinal round tomorrow.

Game 8 - Friday March 5, 2021 6:00 PM

#7 Alabama (16-8, 8-8) vs #2 South Carolina (19-4, 14-2)

FINAL - South Carolina 75 Alabama 63

The #2 Seed South Carolina (20-4, 14-2) stormed through a strong first quarter, then hung on for dear life as #7 Seed Alabama (16-9, 8-8) out-scored the Gamecocks in the last three quarters. Still, the Gamecocks held on to win their quarterfinal game 75-63.

 The Gamecocks were led by their guard tandem Zia Cooke (22 pts, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Destanni Henderson (18 pts, 5 assists), as well as Aliyah Boston, who contributed 16 pts, 13 rebounds, and 3 steals. The Tide was led by Jordan Lewis, who scored 25 pts and 6 rebounds.

The Gamecocks now face the winner between #11 Seed Mississippi and #3 Seed Tennessee who play each other after the Gamecocks-Wildcats' game.

Game 9 - Friday March 5, 2021 8:30 PM

#11 Mississippi (11-10, 4-10) vs #3 Tennessee (15-6, 9-4)

FINAL - Tennessee 77 Mississippi 72

The #11 Seed Mississippi (11-11, 4-10) played an inspired game where they battled down to the last seconds of their quarterfinal game against #3 Seed Tennessee before losing 77-72 in the final quarterfinal game for Friday. The Lady Vols' Rennia Davis rolled her ankle and left with UT trainers to the locker room for a number of minutes, but returned to the game and scored 33 pts with 14 rebounds. Rae Burrell added 18 pts and 7 rebounds. The Rebel's Donnetta Johnson scored 20 pts with 5 steals, Shakira Austin added 14 pts, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals,

Tennessee (16-6, 9-4) will now turn around and play #2 Seed South Carolina Saturday at 6:30 PM.

 
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SATURDAY'S SEMIFINAL GAMES:

Game 10 - Saturday March 6, 2021 4:00 PM

#4 Georgia (19-5, 10-5) vs #1 Texas A&M (23-1, 13-1)

FINAL - Georgia 74 Texas A&M 68

The #4 Seed Georgia Bulldogs jumped out to a strong start to the game, and then weathered a strong response from #1 Seed Texas A&M Aggies in the middle of the game to pull away to the 74-68 semifinal win, and earn the right to play for the 2021 SEC Tournament Championship tomorrow (Sunday).

The Bulldogs (20-5, 10-5) opened the game strong and took a 25-13 lead at the end of the 1st Period behind strong shooting including going 4-4 from 3-pt. distance. But the newly crowned SEC Regular-Season Aggies (23-2, 13-1) surged back in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, to lead 50-49 to start the 4th Qtr. Then the Bulldogs surged again behind strong defense, out-scoring the Aggies 25-18 to pull away for the victory.

The Bulldogs were led by Maya Caldwell with 19 pts, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Mikayla Coombs scored 14 pts, Jenna Staiti scored 13 pts and added 12 rebounds, 6 blocks and 2 steals, and Que Morrison chipped in 12 pts, with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. The Aggies were led by N'dea Jones' 16 pts, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks, and Jordan Nixon with 14 pts.

Game 11 - Saturday 6, 2021 6:30 PM

#3 Tennessee (16-6, 9-4) vs #2 South Carolina (20-4, 14-2)

FINAL - South Carolina 67 Tennessee 52

In a physical, emotional game, the #2 Seed South Carolina Gamecocks (21-4, 14-2) got their revenge over #3 Seed Tennessee Lady Vols (16-7, 9-4) by defeating them in their SEC Tournament semifinal game 67-52. The Gamecocks were able to respond to the 75-67 defeat at the hands of the Lady Vols on February 18th which ended the Gamecock's program-record streaks of regular-season SEC wins at 28 games, and overall SEC wins at 31 games. Now, the Lady Vols stood in the way of the Gamecocks reaching their 6th SEC Tournament championship game in seven seasons.

The Gamecocks were led by Zia Cooke with 17 pts and 4 rebounds, by Aliyah Boston with 15 pts - including 2-2 from the 3-pt. line - 11 rebounds and 2 blocks, and by Destanni Henderson with 13 pts, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. The Lady Vols were led by Jordan Walker with 11 pts and 5 rebounds, and by Jordan Horston also with 11 pts, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. The Gamecock defense was able to hold the Vols' top two scorers - Rennia Davis and Rae Burrell - to 9 points each, and a combined 6-23 shooting. They came into the game averaging 17.6 ppg and 17.1 ppg, respectively.

Now the Gamecocks will take on the #4 Seed Georgia Bulldogs for the SEC Tournament Championship.

 
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