How to watch and what to watch for when South Carolina women's basketball visits East Carolina

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The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (11-0) at East Carolina (7-3)
When: Noon, Saturday, December 30
Where: Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, Greenville, NC
Watch: ESPN2

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1. Rest or rust
Strange things can happen in the first game back following the holiday break (see: Missouri, 2021).

South Carolina hasn’t played since December 19 at Bowling Green. That stretch of 11 days included, for most players, trips home to spend Christmas with their families. The team returned to practice on December 27.

“We slowly ramped back up to where I think we worked the kinks out,” Dawn Staley said.

2. Turnovers
After a three-game stretch where South Carolina averaged nearly 20 turnovers per game, the Gamecocks averaged just 10 over the two games heading into the Christmas break. 

The improvement was the product of the emphasis South Carolina put on limiting turnovers. But after the long break, will the Gamecocks have the same focus on keeping turnovers down? It will be an interesting test of this team’s maturity against a team that leads the nation in turnovers forced.

“They turn people over 28 times a game,” Staley said. “It will be a challenge playing them there.”

3. All hands on deck
All eleven Gamecocks are healthy and available to play against East Carolina. That’s not always a guarantee after the long layoff.

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4. Final tune-up
South Carolina’s non-conference season doesn’t technically end Saturday – that comes in February against UConn – but technicalities aside it’s the final tune-up before the grind of conference play begins.

Because the Gamecocks play on Saturday instead of the normal Sunday, they get an extra day to prepare for the SEC opener at Florida on Thursday. They’ll have Sunday off and then use the extra day Monday for some self-scouting.

“We’ve got three days to prepare instead of two days so we’ll use Monday to work on us,” Staley said. “And then concentrate on Florida.”

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5. Scouting the Pirates
Last season, East Carolina won its first AAC tournament title and made its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007. The Pirates went 23-9 last season and return all five starters, including leading scorer Danae McNeal, AAC Freshman of the Year Amiya Joyner, and AAC tournament MOP Synia Johnson.

Joyner is the reigning AAC Player of the Week after averaging 19.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 3.0 steals, and 4.0 blocks in a pair of wins the week before Christmas. She is averaging 12.7 points and 8.9 rebounds this season.

McNeal, the former Swansea standout who began her career at Clemson, averages 19.4 points.

As impressive as those individual numbers are, as a team the Pirates are not very efficient on offense. They shoot just 39.8% from the field and 27.9% from three. They average a modest 68.1 points per game. 

The Pirates probably can’t keep pace with the Gamecocks’ high-powered offense, which averages 92.5 points on 52.6% shooting. They will have to borrow the strategy of their instate foes North Carolina and Duke and turn the game into a slog and force turnovers. 

The Pirates may seem like an odd opponent for the Gamecocks, but they are the type of team Staley likes to schedule. East Carolina has its eyes on another NCAA tournament berth, and the Pirates are the type of team South Carolina could face in the second round. Case in point: last season, South Carolina played another AAC team, South Florida, in the second round.

“It’s a good opponent that has some quality Power 5 players on their team, so it’s a good challenge,” Staley said.

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