South Carolina foward Chloe Kitts reveals how Gamecocks rallied to hold off Georgia upset bid

South Carolina got off to a slow start under all the lights in Sunday afternoon’s home game against Georgia, the site of women’s College GameDay for the weekend, but rallied in the second half to secure the win.

Georgia was down 15-6 at one point but slowly built right back to a 17-17 tie by the end of the first quarter. 10 minutes later, the hot start for the Bulldogs was no fluke as Georgia led 35-28 and had outscored South Carolina 29-13 for basically the last 15 minutes of the half.

The second half, however, went the Gamecocks’ way big time. Carolina controlled the third quarter and was much more stout defensively, outscoring UGA 22-9 to turn a halftime deficit into a lead as the fourth period began. A 20-12 advantage in the final 10 minutes sealed the win.

So did the play of Chloe Kitts in the second half. The starting forward had seen her minutes slightly decrease of late thanks to the emergence of Ashlyn Watkins off the bench, and head coach Dawn Staley even spoke about that dynamic in the pregame. However, with Watkins in some foul trouble, Kitts was needed and stepped up with 12 points, seven rebounds and two assists in the win.

Afterwards, she discussed with Holly Rowe what led to the good performance.

“What was important for me was, you know, keep running my lane, try to rebound, keep playing hard,” shared Kitts, also crediting the rest of her team. “And you know, my teammates just found me, at the end of the day.”

All season long, Kitts and Kamilla Cardoso have started alongside one another, and Kitts said that when things went wrong offensively today, South Carolina was able to get back to the basics with a simple back-and-forth game between its forward combo.

“You know, just moving the ball. We tried to get the ball inside and outside, and then we brought the ball back in so we could play high-low. You know, just working with each other and trusting each other to try to put each other in the best situation,” said Kitts of her connection with Cardoso on the court.

Cardoso was the Gamecock team leader in points and rebounds for the day, notching 16 of each in yet another dominant performance from her. With Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins chipping in as forwards as well, this Carolina front-court is quite dangerous.