South Carolina women's basketball Rapid Reaction: Vanderbilt
South Carolina pulled away from Vanderbilt for an impressive 82-54 win. Here’s what stood out from the game.
– Memorial Gymnasium is a notoriously tricky place to play, with its odd layout and funky sightlines. Throw in some questionable first-half foul calls that got the Gamecocks in foul trouble and the Commodores in the bonus, and you could practically see the trap being set for South Carolina.
Instead, the Gamecocks gutted through the poor shooting by pounding the glass. They played defense and turned it into easy baskets. And players like Maryam Dauda stepped up.
Dauda followed up her nine-point, eight-rebound game against Arkansas with three points and seven rebounds against Vanderbilt. She made sure South Carolina didn’t lose anything when Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin had to sit with foul trouble.
– South Carolina looked really connected on Sunday and the ball movement stood out. It wasn’t just the assists – 16 on 30 baskets. It was tipping rebounds to teammates, or tapping a loose ball to a spot they knew a teammate would be.
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They would have had more assists, too, if the Gamecocks could make a jumper in the first half.
Regardless, it’s another positive sign that the team is locked in and focused as we head to the postseason. And it makes the shaky performance at Texas and the no-show against UConn look even more out of character.
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– I know Dawn Staley drives some fans crazy with her refusal to make lineup changes. My counterargument is that you shake players’ confidence when you make changes for the sake of change, plus if A’ja Wilson could come off the bench, you can too.
That being said, Staley isn’t as rigid with her rotations as people often think. As we have gotten deeper into the season, Staley has started inserting MiLaysia Fulwiley and Joyce Edwards before the first media timeout. She’s also been more willing to ride the hot hand in the guard rotation (Fulwiley played 13 minutes in the first half and Raven Johnson only played eight).
And there was the big move in the third quarter on Sunday. After Khamil Pierre scored the first two baskets of the second half, Staley put Edwards in for Sania Feagin less than two minutes into the quarter. That was one of the quickest substitutions I can remember.
It was also an easy decision: after the move, Edwards scored 11 points during South Carolina’s decisive 16-1 run.
