South Carolina women's basketball: Three lessons from the Auburn game

South Carolina had its bye on Thursday and only played one game last week. Here’s what we learned from the underwhelming win over Auburn. 

1. Defensive rebounding is a significant concern

South Carolina did not play particularly well on Sunday, but the Gamecocks had company. Three ranked teams lost to unranked opponents and several others had unimpressive showings. It was, if you believe in such things, one of those days.

But that doesn’t explain the Gamecocks’ poor performance on the glass.

Texas had 20 offensive rebounds. LSU had 28, and Tennessee had 18. It was concerning but also excusable. 

Texas got most of its offensive boards on a couple of goofy possessions. LSU outrebounds almost everyone. Tennessee takes mostly jump shots, which leads to long rebounds. 

Plus, in all three cases, when you only shoot 30%, there are a lot more offensive boards to be had.

There was no excuse for how Auburn dominated the offensive glass in the first half on Sunday. The Tigers had nine second-chance points in the half despite shooting 50%. South Carolina needed to force 23 turnovers to help offset the offensive rebounds.

“We’ve got to find a way to box out,” Dawn Staley said. “There’s too many offensive rebounds for easy putbacks.”

The Gamecocks have another “get-right” game on Thursday at Georgia. They need to get that rebounding fixed.

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2. The Freshman of the Year race isn’t over yet

Mikayla Blakes seemed to stake a pretty strong claim as SEC Freshman of the Year when she scored an SEC freshman-record 53 points at Florida. I was certainly leaning heavily that way on Thursday.

But on Sunday, Blakes only had 16 points as Vanderbilt was upset at home by 15 points to unranked Ole Miss. That cracked the door open again for Joyce Edwards, who had 18 points and five rebounds in the win over Auburn.

It is an oversimplification to portray the race as stats versus wins. Blakes has a lot of wins to go with her numbers, and Edwards is putting up some pretty impressive stats to help South Carolina keep winning.

But there’s no denying that Edwards is leading South Carolina to bigger wins than Vanderbilt has, and that counts for something. Staley made her appeal for Edwards as national freshman of the year after the game on Sunday.

“I’ve got to put a narrative out there that Joyce is doing some incredible things,” Staley said. “We have a tendency to just focus on one (player). What she’s been able to do and the type of schedule that we have, not easy. It’s not easy. I don’t want people to forget what Joyce is doing over here. We’re not going to allow awards to be given out with no consideration for our players here, for doing it the right way, for playing the schedule that we play, and for having a team that we have.”

My hunch is the vote gets split and Blakes is named Freshman of the Year and Edwards is named Sixth Woman of the Year.

3. South Carolina needs Sania Feagin

Feagin got in early foul trouble and only played 15 minutes on Sunday. She had six points, a block, and a steal, but no rebounds.

Feagin never got into a rhythm because of the foul trouble, and she wasn’t much of a factor on either end of the court. It’s no coincidence that her counterpart DeYona Gaston went off for 31 points. 

Edwards and Chloe Kitts (13 points, nine rebounds) played well against Auburn, but neither one has the same defensive impact that Feagin has. South Carolina needs its three-headed rotation to be clicking to play its best.

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