Women's Hoops at Vanderbilt Thursday Night
#5/4 SOUTH CAROLINA (8-1, 3-0 SEC) AT VANDERBILT (4-2, 0-1 SEC)
8 P.M. ET | NASHVILLE, TENN. | MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM
South Carolina Game Notes | WATCH: SECN+ | LISTEN: 107.5 The Game | Live Stats | Media Availability
ABOUT THIS GAME
- Vanderbilt leads the all-time series 21-18, but the Gamecocks have a 13-2 edge in the Dawn Staley era, including the current 12-game win streak over Vanderbilt.
- The Gamecocks are looking to open SEC play 4-0 for the third-straight season. After last season’s 16-0 SEC slate, South Carolina has won 19 straight regular-season league games. Their longest SEC win streak is 24 games – Jan. 3, 2016, through Jan. 26, 2017.
- A win today would be Dawn Staley’s 142nd in SEC regular-season action, moving her into soul possession of fourth place all-time in most SEC regular-season victories. It would break her current tied with her former Olympic head coach Van Chancellor who amasses 141 wins in 20 seasons at Ole Miss and LSU combined. Third place is owned by Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair (144).
GAMECOCK NOTABLES
- Unanimous AP Preseason All-American Aliyah Boston continues to be a force in SEC action. She needed just 25 minutes at #10/8 Kentucky on Sunday to post a near triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots. The effort earned her SEC co-Player of the Week honors and catapulted her up the league standings. In SEC play, she is ninth in scoring (17.7), third in rebounds (12.7) and first in blocked shots (4.3). Her 2.7 steals per SEC game are good for sixth in the league, and she is pulling down 4.3 offensive rebounds per league game to rank second in the conference.
- Junior point guard Destanni Henderson is beginning to stamp her authority on the Gamecocks, and outside observers are beginning to recognize the quiet floor general. In SEC action, she is third on the team and 19th in the league with 14.7 ppg, leads the team and is second in the SEC with 5.7 apg, and her 7.7 rebounds per game are second on the team and 14th in the conference. She joins Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard and Tennessee’s Rennia Davis as the only three players in the SEC to rank among the league’s top 15 in both assists and rebounds per game. She has scored 20 or more points three times this season, including the last two outings.
- Sophomore Zia Cooke has provided a bulk of the Gamecocks’ offensive firepower this season, ranking ninth in the league with 17.4 points per game this season. Even in a tough shooting game at #10/8 Kentucky Sunday, in the final minute of a three-point game, she came up with a pair of defensive rebounds and game-sealing free throws.
BY THE NUMBERS
2 Just two of the 12 wins in South Carolina’s’ current streak against Vanderbilt have been decided by single digits.
4 Four Gamecocks average double-figure points in SEC action, led by Aliyah Boston (17.7) and Zia Cooke (17.0), who rank 9th and 11th in the league, respectively.
7 South Carolina guards have out-scored their forward teammates in the paint seven times in nine games this season.
21.9 The Gamecocks have limited their opponents to just 21.9 percent from the 3-pont line to rank seventh in the country in 3-point percentage defense.
48.1 South Carolina is rebounding 48.1 percent of its own missed shots in SEC play and averages 20.0 second-chance points against league foes.
56 The Gamecocks scored 56 of their 75 points at Kentucky in the paint, their hightest number in SEC play this season.
