South Carolina women's basketball: Last season's Hoosier comeback has the Gamecocks' attention
While they waited for tipoff of their first round game against Tennessee Tech, South Carolina players and coaches settled along the baseline to watch Indiana play Utah.
It’s a normal tournament routine. Coaches may be working on a scouting report, but for players, it’s usually equal parts killing boredom (like Sakima Walker making a friendship bracelet during the SEC Tournament) and scouting the next opponent. Not Friday.
“We have to come out strong this time and not have a slippage like they did in the second half the last time they played each other,” Maryam Dauda said.
Wait, “We?” Dauda was still an Arkansas Razorback when South Carolina played Indiana last season in the Sweet 16.
In that game, South Carolina led by as much as 23 in the second half but Indiana battled all the way back to pull within two points with 36 seconds to play. It took clutch baskets by Raven Johnson and a game-clinching block from Ashlyn Watkins to survive.
“It’s in our minds that it’s Indiana again,” Dawn Staley said. “Hopefully we’ll have a better outing and finish 40 minutes of basketball.”
The Gamecocks remember how they lost their focus that day in Albany. During a delay in play, they were caught on ESPN’s telecast doing the Macarena. There probably won’t be any dancing on Sunday. Well, less dancing.
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“We keep talking about the halftime dance routine we had with Raven and Kamilla and we were up big in the game,” Te-Hina Paopao said. “This year we have to be more disciplined, just be able to keep the mindset that we’ve got to stay in all 40 minutes.”
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Indiana is not as talented as it was last season. Mackenzie Holmes, arguably the best player in program history, is now in the WNBA. But Sydney Parrish is still around, and her eight straight third-quarter points started Indiana’s comeback last season.
“We took our foot off their neck and they shot a couple of threes,” Sania Feagin said.
Parrish had a relatively quiet game in the win over Utah, with eight points, eight rebounds, and four assists before fouling out. Yet she still seemed to be involved in every important fourth-quarter play for the Hoosiers.
I asked about half the team what they remembered or knew about Indiana, and the first thing everyone mentioned was the comeback. Tessa Johnson summed it up the best.
“They came back,” she said, “but it’s not going to happen this year.”
