South Carolina women's basketball: Greensboro recap
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Before heading to Minneapolis, we need to wrap up Greensboro for this South Carolina women’s basketball squad.
- South Carolina women’s basketball’s ability to make the right in-game adjustments was very impressive. Dawn Staley said Saturday that the hardest part about tournament play is that you can’t really game plan for opponents because of the condensed schedule, you basically are who you are. Jim Flanery said something similar after the game, bemoaning that Creighton tried to install a defensive scheme for Aliyah Boston but the players struggled to execute.
Creighton tried to give Boston different looks, but she was able to diagnose them quickly and punish the Bluejays. Whether it was splitting the double team, finding the open player, or taking advantage of rare single coverage, she repeatedly made the right move. And South Carolina’s perimeter players recognized what was happening too. Brea Beal missed a couple of threes in the first quarter, but in the second and third quarters she repeatedly turned down open jumps shots to drive for layups.
“I don’t think (driving) was really our main focus, but just do what’s working,” Destanni Henderson said. “So I felt like it was really important for the people who weren’t getting pressured to definitely drive, because you have so much space. So just to execute and just see what’s in front of you.”
- South Carolina held Creighton to 50 points, its second-lowest scoring game of the season. The 37.5% field goal shooting was the sixth-worst of the season. South Carolina enters the Final Four allowing 41.3 points per game in the Tournament. That is the second-lowest amount in the history of the Tournament. Against Creighton, the key was on-ball defense.
“We just really concentrated on whoever had the ball, that we were going to all-out pressure them and make them put the ball on the floor,” Staley said.
- It had to end eventually, but it was still surprising that Boston’s double-double streak ended Sunday. Staley was asked what she thought about the streak:
“I mean, this is what she’s supposed to do,” she said. “Seriously, like that’s what she’s supposed to do. I mean, I think she’s a great talent. I think it goes to show how relentless she is. She’s really a relentless player, relentless rebounder. But when it’s all said and done, Aliyah just wants to win, so she’s going to do the things to win basketball games, and it’s fortunate for us she did it in a double-double fashion.”
- “Shorts and tank-top weather” in Minneapolis, according to Boston.
