Gamecocks win their lone exhibition game for 2019-20 112-48.....
My game observations:
Zia is a very fast, dynamic guard sort of like Cuevas-Moore, but not as out-of-control as much as Bianca was in her early years. She led the team in shot attempts and scoring, but also had 5 of the team's 7 turnovers - but that should be expected to a degree with her being a freshman in her very first college game, even if it was an exhibition. Still, she'll need to take better care of the ball as the season progresses.
Boston is the real deal: given, this was an opponent that simply did not have the size to compete well against her or Herbert-Harrigan down low, but Boston started the game focused and physical, and was an early-game impact player. I love those aspects with younger players right off the bat - in the line of Alaina Coates, who also had an attitude and never backed down in banging bodies. Boston added 5 blocks and 2 steals to her 11 pts and 8 boards, all in just half of a game's full 40 minutes of play.
Grissett: if you recall my halftime post above, you might remember I said Grissett was the only Gamecock to not have scored, of the players that had minutes in the game. And that I said it was because she hadn't taken a shot attempt yet, in 8 minutes. Well, in 4 2nd-half minutes, she made up for lost time going 7 for 8, and finishing with 16 pts, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. Lele was tied for the team scoring lead until Cooke hit those 2 free throws in the final seconds to edge ahead of her. Hopefully this is a glimpse of what we'll see from Grissett in her new role as a G.
Amihere - Beal - Saxton: these girls combined to go 15 for 20 from the field, and scored 36 combined points. There have been past teams over the years, where we've scored well in the 1st and 3rd quarters, and struggled offensively in the 2nd and 4th qtrs. That's because those are the periods when we sit our starters, and let the reserves come in and play extensive minutes. We've many seasons had 3-4 players AT BEST - sometimes it was 2-3 players - who we could rely on consistently to provide offense for us, and the others were all hit and miss.
Coach Staley made a comment around the SEC Media Days where she said that our 2nd 5 may out-score our 1st 5 consistently on the season. I don't know about this, but it's nice to see multiple players that can come in and keep the offensive intensity at a high level.
AGAIN - this was just an exhibition game against an out-matched opponent, but it's hopeful that we'll have more of a team similar to the 2014-15 -2016-17 seasons, where we started with A'ja Wilson and Coates coming in off the bench for Aleighsa Welch and Elem Ibiam, with Tiffany Mitchell leading the way, and then had Wilson, Coates, Gray, and Davis, with Harris and Cuevas-Moore adding depth.
The Gamecocks only won the national title, reached another Final Four, and perhaps had their best team of the three in the middle season, that got upset in the Sweet-Sixteen, during those 3 seasons.
Hopefully we're building another juggernaut team like those ones, this season. We'll see: the season begins next Tuesday against Alabama State....
-131: 
