Greetings from Colonial Life Arena, wher I am sitting courtside to cover the women's basketball season opener tonight.
Let's do it!
Let's do it!
South Carolina WBB vs. ETSU Live Thread
- Thread starter Alan Cole
- Start date
Zia Cooke, Aliyah Boston, Victaria Saxton, Brea Beal and Raven Johnson are your starters for the Gamecocks on opening night.
South Carolina leads 55-12 at the half. Defense has forced as many turnovers as points allowed.
Breaking news, but this team is really, really good.
Breaking news, but this team is really, really good.
They don't have the speed of Henderson at PG but collectively the team looks faster than last year.
If the Gamecocks get the to the National
Title game they will play 39 games. Based on the first 1/78th of the season, there isn’t much not to like. This team appears deeper than last year. Fletcher is moving well and not showing any lingering injury issues. Cooper and Watkins look like the real deal. Saxton is hitting her FTs. Tennessee and Stanford are the only teams that will be able to stay close on the glass.
4-17 from behind the arch, that will need to improve against the Stanford, UConn, and LSUs of the world. Also, this is a minor criticism considering ETSU has 12 points, but the defense has been a little slow on some of their switches. You can probably chalk that to Dawn playing so many different lineups.
Title game they will play 39 games. Based on the first 1/78th of the season, there isn’t much not to like. This team appears deeper than last year. Fletcher is moving well and not showing any lingering injury issues. Cooper and Watkins look like the real deal. Saxton is hitting her FTs. Tennessee and Stanford are the only teams that will be able to stay close on the glass.
4-17 from behind the arch, that will need to improve against the Stanford, UConn, and LSUs of the world. Also, this is a minor criticism considering ETSU has 12 points, but the defense has been a little slow on some of their switches. You can probably chalk that to Dawn playing so many different lineups.
I
I don't think she's there yet, but I think once Cooper gets some more college basketball under her legs she might end up being an engine for this team. She plays at a good pace and is really aggressive. Agree with you on the whole this team has speed.
South Carolina beats East Tennessee State 101-31 to open their season. They next travel to Maryland.
Six Gamecocks finished in double digits for the game: Zia Cooke led the way with 17 pts in 19 minutes on 6-12 shooting, with 2 steals. Sania Feagin added 15 pts in 19 minutes off the bench, on 7-9 shooting, with 6 rebounds. Aliyah Boston added 11 pts on 3-5 shooting, on 20 minutes, with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Victaria Saxton also added 11 pts in 16 minutes on just 1-3 shooting, but also 9-10 at the free throw line. She also had 5 boards. Kamilla Cardoso scored 11 pts as well on 5-6 shooting in 21 minutes, with 5 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal. Freshman Ashlyn Watkins scored 11 pts too in 18 minutes, on 5-7 shooting, with 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal.
Red-shirt Freshman PG Raven Johnson had her first game action coming back from her ACL injury that derailed her season last year. She scored 9 pts on 4-10 shooting in 17 minutes, with a team-leading 4 assists and 4 steals.
Altogether the Gamecocks totaled 9 blocks, 13 steals, 20 assists, 56 rebounds, and shot 53% from the field.....
Six Gamecocks finished in double digits for the game: Zia Cooke led the way with 17 pts in 19 minutes on 6-12 shooting, with 2 steals. Sania Feagin added 15 pts in 19 minutes off the bench, on 7-9 shooting, with 6 rebounds. Aliyah Boston added 11 pts on 3-5 shooting, on 20 minutes, with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Victaria Saxton also added 11 pts in 16 minutes on just 1-3 shooting, but also 9-10 at the free throw line. She also had 5 boards. Kamilla Cardoso scored 11 pts as well on 5-6 shooting in 21 minutes, with 5 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal. Freshman Ashlyn Watkins scored 11 pts too in 18 minutes, on 5-7 shooting, with 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal.
Red-shirt Freshman PG Raven Johnson had her first game action coming back from her ACL injury that derailed her season last year. She scored 9 pts on 4-10 shooting in 17 minutes, with a team-leading 4 assists and 4 steals.
Altogether the Gamecocks totaled 9 blocks, 13 steals, 20 assists, 56 rebounds, and shot 53% from the field.....
Hopefully no one sustained or aggravated an injury. I can't get over what happened to Raven last year right off the jump.
Raven Johnson and Zia Cooke here:
Johnson: I wasn't nervous at all. I was very exciting. Having teammates like Zia, Aliyah, it's another game. I wasn't really, nervous, I was very excited.
Zia Cooke: Honestly we have such good practice players, they help us so much on the floor. Sometimes, it's harder to play in practice than it is in the game.
Johnson: I wasn't nervous at all. I was very exciting. Having teammates like Zia, Aliyah, it's another game. I wasn't really, nervous, I was very excited.
Zia Cooke: Honestly we have such good practice players, they help us so much on the floor. Sometimes, it's harder to play in practice than it is in the game.
Dawn Staley:
On the rotations:
I was just trying to abide by the minute restrictions with our point guards, and I knew that I just had to make sure that we're not going overboard with them. They actually didn't end up playing the total amount of minutes that were allotted, but we had seen enough. We need to get them a little more experience, but this was a good tune-up for them.
On Raven Johnson:
"Raven's fearless. She doesn't think about her knee unless her knee brace strap is loose, and then we have to remind her that it's loose. She's a young point guard that has a great feel for the game, you can tell."
On receiving the rings:
I'm looking at their names being called and seeing their pure joy. I call myself a dream merchant, and that is the moment where you say you've done your job. They came here to win a National Championship, and they did."
On if she learned anything from tonight:
"I see us formulating great habits, adn seeing them in the game. We've been very fortunute that our practice guys, the highlightesrs are really good. They're probably the best highlighters we've had. It's hard to gauge how good we are, because they beat us all the time."
"It's hard to guage exactly where you are, except you have instances tonight where you see us able to play ball screens tonight differently, see us be able to swtich, and we haven't really worked that a whole lot. We haven't really worked that a lot yet where we're switching everything, but I saw us do a really good job of it.
On the bigs:
It's just going to be a give and take. I think what's really important is we find a way to give them the ball and reward them for running. They're still very young, and we don't want to lose sight of them being very young. But we also have to put them in positions where they can gain experience, but it's a logjam there. '
On Kierra Fletcher:
I thought Kierra just tried to get everything back from the last 20 minutes of not playing. She's ready. She wants to do well. She wants the chemistry to be a lot stronger, but you know, it'll take some time. She's aggressive; she wants to score, and we need that from her position."
On the rotations:
I was just trying to abide by the minute restrictions with our point guards, and I knew that I just had to make sure that we're not going overboard with them. They actually didn't end up playing the total amount of minutes that were allotted, but we had seen enough. We need to get them a little more experience, but this was a good tune-up for them.
On Raven Johnson:
"Raven's fearless. She doesn't think about her knee unless her knee brace strap is loose, and then we have to remind her that it's loose. She's a young point guard that has a great feel for the game, you can tell."
On receiving the rings:
I'm looking at their names being called and seeing their pure joy. I call myself a dream merchant, and that is the moment where you say you've done your job. They came here to win a National Championship, and they did."
On if she learned anything from tonight:
"I see us formulating great habits, adn seeing them in the game. We've been very fortunute that our practice guys, the highlightesrs are really good. They're probably the best highlighters we've had. It's hard to gauge how good we are, because they beat us all the time."
"It's hard to guage exactly where you are, except you have instances tonight where you see us able to play ball screens tonight differently, see us be able to swtich, and we haven't really worked that a whole lot. We haven't really worked that a lot yet where we're switching everything, but I saw us do a really good job of it.
On the bigs:
It's just going to be a give and take. I think what's really important is we find a way to give them the ball and reward them for running. They're still very young, and we don't want to lose sight of them being very young. But we also have to put them in positions where they can gain experience, but it's a logjam there. '
On Kierra Fletcher:
I thought Kierra just tried to get everything back from the last 20 minutes of not playing. She's ready. She wants to do well. She wants the chemistry to be a lot stronger, but you know, it'll take some time. She's aggressive; she wants to score, and we need that from her position."
