South Carolina women's basketball: Zia Cooke's career-high rescues Gamecocks
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Zia Cooke scored a career-high 31 points to lead South Carolina to a come-from-behind 68-51 win over Georgia.
South Carolina trailed for the first 25 minutes, falling behind by as much as seven. Georgia led by three at halftime and went up by five early in the third quarter. South Carolina responded with a 9-0 run.
Cooke was fouled on a drive and made a miraculous layup. She missed the free throw but Victaria Saxton scored on the putback. Then, with Boston triple-teamed, South Carolina worked the ball over to Brea Beal on the other side of the floor for the go-ahead three-pointer.
“Us guards have got to be able hit the outside shots and the posts have to rely on us to hit kickouts like that,” Beal said.
Beal hit another three-pointer as the third quarter ran out to give South Carolina a 47-40 lead going into the fourth, its largest lead up to that point. South Carolina outscored Georgia 21-11 in both the third and fourth quarters.
Cooke missed her first three shots, but wasn’t discouraged. She led the Gamecocks with 11 first half points, but didn’t really find her touch until the second half.
“Coach kept telling me to keep shooting my shot. When I wanted to stop shooting but she just consistently told me to keep shooting,” Cooke said. “My teammates are always in my ear, telling me to keep shooting. We do that for each other.”
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Cooke scored 20 points in the second half. When she wasn’t scoring, she was creating for teammates, and she set up both of Beal’s three point shots. She also had four rebounds and two steals while playing solid defense.
“She took great shots. She didn’t force anything and if she did force something it was going toward the basket,” Dawn Staley said. “If you’re feeling it, shoot it. Don’t second guess yourself. I thought she did a great job of scoring, of driving and kicking out to Brea Beal.”
“We really got beat by one kid, Zia Cooke,” Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said. “She just got hot. She got really hot.”
South Carolina shot 9-16 in the third quarter and 5-6 in the fourth. The Gamecocks were also 9-11 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.
South Carolina’s first-half offense was atrocious. The Gamecocks missed their first six threes and finished just 2-10 from behind the arc. They committed 10 turnovers and made just 8-28 baskets, including 5-12 on layups.
“We just got a little bit anxious, we got Flintstone feet,” Staley said. “We were playing faster than we needed to play.”
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Despite a significant size advantage, Aliyah Boston did not make a basket and had just two points and four rebounds. Kamilla Cardoso was more effective, with four points and six rebounds, but she shot just 2-7.
Georgia started hot, hitting six of their first eight shots, but it didn’t last. The Bulldogs missed eight of their next ten attempts as the game turned into a slog. South Carolina regrouped at halftime and came out relaxed.
Staley told them they needed to make layups, that they had survived Georgia’s best shot, and Georgia was better at getting to loose balls.
“We just had to weather the storm,” Staley said. “They’ve got a rocking gym in here and they’ve played us as well as any team has played us this year. We had to be ourselves in the third and fourth quarters.”
Georgia’s leading scorer Diamond Battles never got going. She finished with just one point and no assists while picking up four fouls.
Audrey Warren and Brittney Smith led Georgia with 12 and 10 points, respectively, but they struggled in the second half. Warren was just 1-6 in the second half. Smith got into foul trouble trying to guard South Carolina’s bigs, and only played 20 minutes.
Georgia’s field goal percentage decreased in each quarter, from 50.0% in the first quarter to 41.2% in the second, to 33.3% in the third, and 23.5% in the fourth quarter.
Notes:
Cooke was the first Gamecock to score at least 30 points since Te’a Cooper scored 31 against Drake in 2018. The last time a Gamecocks scored 30 in an SEC game was Brionna Dickerson in 2009. … Bree Hall returned after missing the Texas A&M game. She only played four minutes as Staley leaned on the starters, but hit a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter. … South Carolina had 18 turnovers but only one in the third quarter. … Aliyah Boston braids report: New year, same red and green braids. … Dawn Staley fit report: black hoodie and black pants. … Announced attendance was 6,225. … South Carolina’s next game is Thursday against Auburn.
