South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - #9 TCU
South Carolina women’s basketball faces its second Top-10 opponent in four days when it meets #9 TCU on Sunday. Find out what to watch for and how to watch the game.
1. Sania’s game
During the Duke game, someone sitting nearby wondered aloud why Sania Feagin was still starting (I won’t out the person who said it). Over the next two minutes, Feagin made a basket, blocked a shot, and assisted on a layup.
That’s why she’s still starting.
Feagin replaced Kamilla Cardoso in the lineup, but that doesn’t mean she is expected to replace her production. She isn’t expected to put up 15 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks every game. But Feagin can do a lot of different things and her guard skills give opponents a different look.
Feagin got off to a slow start this season but has settled into her new role. She’s averaging 6.7 points – the same as last season – and has hit double figures in two of the last three games. She’s also averaging 3.9 rebounds, which is a career-high, and playing the best defense of her career.
South Carolina doesn’t need Feagin to be a star. She’s more of a table-setter for the rest of the team, especially as Ashlyn Watkins and Joyce Edwards emerge.
2. Wrapping up Duke
South Carolina dominated about 75% of the game against Duke. How concerned should the Gamecocks be about the other 25%?
Not very, Dawn Staley believes. She left her second unit in the game to start the fourth quarter and Duke went on a 10-0 run. After the game, she acknowledged she should have substituted sooner, but wanted the less experienced group to try to stop the run on their own.
“I think the group that we had in probably played a little bit too long,” she said. “I just try to give them an opportunity because, the group that was in, the second group that was in, pushed the lead back up to 20, and then the lead went to 10 like that. Bad shots, bad decisions, bad defense, and then we really couldn’t keep them in that much longer.”
A day later, Staley’s opinion hadn’t changed. The 20-point lead gave South Carolina the cushion to allow players to make mistakes that they can learn from.
“They’re really trying to concentrate on those spaces in which we just aren’t locked in because teams get back in the game, and teams get into our lead,” Staley said. “Or if we had a lead, then we are digging ourselves a bigger hole. So, great learning opportunity.”
3. Bench mob
Let’s tie those first two items together, shall we?
South Carolina’s second unit may have had some issues against Duke, but the Gamecocks general strategy remains to hold serve, get to the bench, and take control of the game.
Feagin only plays 16 minutes per game, less than Edwards (20), Kitts (19), and Watkins (19). She is one of the first players to sub out, and it’s her job to essentially set the table for Watkins and Edwards.
From the South Carolina game notes, the Gamecock bench accounts for 49.2% of the offense (39.4 ppg). The reserves have tied or out-scored their starting teammates in five games, including the last three games against ranked opponents.
It makes sense, then, that South Carolina’s best quarter is the second quarter. That’s when most teams play their reserves the most. South Carolina is outsourcing opponents by 8.3 points in the second quarter. The point differential is six points or less in the other three quarters.
4. One more for the road neutral site
South Carolina is first in the NET rankings and TCU is fourth, and games like this are why. Even though the game is in Fort Worth, where TCU is located, it is technically a neutral site game.
They are playing at Dickies Arena, which opened in 2019, instead of TCU’s on-campus Schollmaier Arena. It even has a sponsor and a name: The U.S. LBM Coast to Coast Challenge, and there is a men’s doubleheader featuring TCU vs Vanderbilt and Texas Tech vs Texas A&M earlier in the day.
There is no future game included with this one, but Dickies Arena hosts the 2026 NCAA Regionals so South Carolina very well could be back next season.
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5. Scouting the Horned Frogs
Sunday’s game is the second top-ten matchup in four days and fourth of the season for South Carolina. For TCU, it is the first top-ten matchup in program history. This is also the first game ever between the two programs.
Fortunately for the Horned Frogs, that has no effect on the game itself. Head coach Mark Campbell has used the transfer portal to assemble a veteran team of experienced players. Campbell was formerly the lead recruiter at Oregon and there is a heavy Duck influence.
Three players were formerly at Oregon, and a fourth was at Oregon State. Te-Hina Paopao planned on following Campbell to TCU until South Carolina came calling.
Sedona Prince (seventh season) and Hailey Van Lith (fifth season) lead TCU in scoring at 19.4 points. 6-7 Prince also averages 10.8 rebounds and 4.3 blocks, best in the nation. Talent has never been an issue for Prince, but she has dealt with injuries throughout her career.
“You’ve got to chop bigs down. You’ve got to make them work for every catch, every touch over a 40-minute period,” Staley said. “Our depth really has to have an impact on this particular game, so we’ll concentrate on doing that. But know that they have much more than Sedona Prince.”
Despite Prince’s rebounding numbers, TCU doesn’t rebound especially well as a team, and South Carolina might be able to take advantage.
After a disappointing season at LSU, Van Lith has returned to the form that made her an honorable mention All-American. In addition to rediscovering her scoring touch, Van Lith is averaging a career-high 6.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds.
“Played against her when she was at Louisville, played against when she was at LSU,” Staley said. “She’s more in the Louisville – she’s in that mode to where she’s calling on to do a lot of things for their basketball team, so you got to go back and look at the Louisville scout and see the types of things that we did to have an impact on her inability to get clean looks.”
In the 2022 Final Four, South Carolina had 6-1 Brea Beal guard 5-9 Van Lith and Beal’s size and strength gave her fits. There isn’t exactly a Beal-type player on this season’s roster, but there are multiple long, athletic players who could fill the role.
Van Lith still isn’t a great three-point shooter (27.8%), but as team TCU is shooting extremely well. The Horned Frogs are 15th in the country in three-point attempts per game (28.9), 11th in makes (10.3), and 46th in percentage (35.8%). Madison Conner (43.8%) and Taylor Bigby (41.9%) are the top shooters.
TCU announced on Thursday that guard Maddie Scherr will miss the rest of the season due to a back injury. Scherr, who was once part of the same recruiting class as Paopao at Oregon, has not played this season but averaged 12.5 points last season at Kentucky.
The Ws
Who: #3 South Carolina (8-1) vs #9 TCU (9-0)
When: 7:00 EST, Sunday, December 8
Where: Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, TX
Watch: ESPN2
