Top-5 Showdown for SEC Title Sunday
#5/6 SOUTH CAROLINA (19-3, 14-1) AT #3/3 TEXAS A&M (21-1, 12-1)
2 P.M. (ET) | COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS | REED ARENA
South Carolina Game Notes | WATCH: ESPN2 | LISTEN: 1320 AM | Live Stats | Staley Media Availability
ABOUT THIS GAME
- South Carolina is 7-3 all-time against Texas A&M after winning the last seven meetings. Eight of the 10 meetings were decided by single digits with five of those settled by three or fewer points.
- This is the second-straight season that the Gamecocks closed out their SEC slate with the Aggies. Last season’s 60-52 victory in Columbia capped South Carolina’s perfect 16-0 league record.
- With both teams suffering just one loss in league play this season, the winner of today’s game will be the 2021 SEC Regular-Season Champion.
- A South Carolina win today would move head coach Dawn Staley into a tie with Texas A&M’s Gary Blair for the most league wins by an active SEC head coach (153).
- This game features the SEC’s two stingiest defenses in league play, during which the Gamecocks have allowed just 59.7 ppg and Texas A&M has yielded 60.7.
- South Carolina enters the game as the “underdog” (lower-ranked team) for the first time this season and the first time since they upset then-No. 2 Baylor on Nov. 30, 2019, as the No. 5 team in the country.
GAMECOCK NOTABLES
- South Carolina’s defense has held 16 opponents under 60 points this season, including eight of 15 SEC foes. Only five teams have scored at least 70 points against the Gamecocks with four of those games still yielding South Carolina victories.
- Ranking fourth in the nation in offensive rebounds (17.0), the Gamecocks have scored 17.6 second-chance points per game, which accounts for 22.4 percent of the team’s total scoring.
- Unanimous AP Preseason All-American Aliyah Boston is the cliche of a walking double-double, posting one in 11 of her 22 games so far this season to rank 16th in the nation. Six of those double-doubles came against ranked opponents. More impressively, she averages a double-double overall (13.0 ppg/11.7 rpg), against SEC teams (13.4 ppg/12.3 rpg) and against ranked opponents (13.8 ppg/12.2 rpg). She is 12th in the nation in rebounding average, 20th in offensive rebounds per game (4.2) and 10th in blocked shots per game (3.0). Boston is on the current watch list for every National Player of the Year award, including Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and is on the Lisa Leslie Award Top 10, an award she won last season.
- Sophomore guard Zia Cooke has scored in double figures in all but three games this season, including four 20-point outings, which ties Boston for team-high honors. She has been the team’s top scorer in 11 of 22 games to lead the Gamecocks as well. She is on the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Top 10 and The Dawn Staley Award Midseason Watch List.
- Junior Destanni Henderson is the lightning-quick engine that powers the Gamecock offense, especially on the fast break. In SEC play, Henderson averages 4.5 fast-break points per game and assists on another 3.0, meaning 7.5 of the team’s 16.1 fast-break points per game (.463) go through her hands.
- As opponents have locked in on stopping the Gamecock offense’s primary options, senior LeLe Grissett and sophomore Laeticia Amihere have stepped up their contributions the last two games. The duo combined to average 22.5 points per game in the last two victories, shooting 48.5 percent from the field.
BY THE NUMBERS
0 The Gamecocks have not been out-rebounded this season with just one team tying them in rebounds (at Tennessee, Feb. 18).
1 Aliyah Boston needs one double-double to move into the program’s all-time top 10 in career double-doubles.
11 South Carolina is playing its 11th game vs. a ranked opponent this season today, more than any other team in the country.
11.7 Dawn Staley has averaged 11.7 SEC wins per season in her 13th season at South Carolina, the highest average in league history.
51.0 In the last five games, Destanni Henderson has shot a team-high 51.0 percent from the field, including 52.4 percent from 3-point range.
