Jan. 11, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 5/5 South Carolina is back at Colonial Life Arena to host Georgia in a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thu., Jan. 12. The Gamecocks (13-1, 3-0 SEC) have won seven straight leading into their fourth SEC game of the season, while Georgia shook off a New Year’s Day loss at Missouri to win its home games against Texas A&M and Vanderbilt last week.

South Carolina Notables

• USA Basketball National Team Director Carol Callan will be at Colonial Life Arena tonight to honor the Gamecocks’ 2016 USA Basketball participants. Head coach Dawn Staley will receive her Olympic Ring for her assistant coach role on the gold medal squad. Junior transfer Alexis Jennings was on the bronze-medal winning team at the FIBA 3×3 World Championships. Freshman Tyasha Harris helped the U.S. pick up gold in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship as well.
• Under head coach Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks are 7-6 against Georgia, including wins in five of the last six outings. In the 13 games in this segment of the series, 10 included at least one nationally ranked team, four saw neither team reach 60 points and none of them have had either team score more than 69 points.
• Both members of the Gamecocks’ starting frontcourt average double-doubles in SEC games so far this season. A’ja Wilson posts 18.7 ppg and 11.0 rpg to rank fifth and fourth, respectively, in the league. Alaina Coates comes in at 12.7 ppg (T-25th) and 10.0 rpg (T-7th).
• After some focused work after the holiday break, the South Carolina defense has been rejuvenated and most consistently on display since the start of SEC action. The Gamecocks have allowed just 51.3 points per game to their three league foes, who shot just 30.6 percent from the field, which has South Carolina leading the SEC in both categories. After holding opponents to single digits in nine of the 44 quarters of non-conference action, the defense has forced fewer than 10 points in four of the 12 quarters in league play. Blocked shots are up, 6.3 to 7.3 per game, as are steals, 9.0 to 9.6 per game.
• Senior center Alaina Coates has spent a career imposing her will in the lane for South Carolina, especially in the rebounding department. She has reach double-digit boards in 48.7 percent of her career games (58 in 119 games). The last two seasons have been especially dominant on the glass with 33 of 49 games ending in double-figure rebounds (67.3 percent), including nine of 14 games this season.
• Freshman point guard Tyasha Harris has lived up to her billing early in SEC action, ranking 10th in the league in assists per SEC game (3.3) and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio in league play (2.0).

By the Numbers

3 Stats in which Alaina Coates ranks among the top 20 in the NATION ââ’¬” FG percentage (3rd, .688), rebounding (16th, 10.6), double-doubles (13th, 9)
9 Stats in which the Gamecocks rank among the nation’s top 15, including three among the top five
20 Quarters this season in which the Gamecocks have out-scored their opponent by double digits

Georgia Series Notes

Georgia leads the series 33-11, although the Gamecocks have won the last four meetings and five of the last six border battles. In the Dawn Staley era (beginning 2008-09), South Carolina leads the series 7-6 in what have been low-scoring affairs for both teams. Over the 13 games in the Staley era, which feature 10 outings in which at least one team was nationally ranked, neither team has scored more than 69 points in a game and four times neither has reached 60 points. During the current segment of the series, the Gamecocks average 54.4 points to the Lady Bulldogs’ 53.8 points.

In the most recent meeting, a 61-51 South Carolina win at Colonial Life Arena on Feb. 18, 2016, the Gamecock defense tied Georgia in knots through the first half, allowing just 13 points on 20.7 percent shooting. The third quarter was especially challenging for the Lady Bulldogs, who netted just four points while South Carolina netted 17 to carry a 27-13 lead into halftime. Georgia rallied in the fourth quarter, closing to within five points in the final 2:29, but the Gamecocks used a 6-0 run over 90 seconds to re-establish the double-digit lead they would maintain until the final horn.

USA Basketball Connection

At least one Gamecock has donned the red, white and blue for USA Basketball in each of the last three summers, and the group has helped six U.S. teams to five gold medals and one bronze in that time. Former Gamecock Tiffany Mitchell got the streak started with her FIBA 3×3 World Championship gold in 2014, which A’ja Wilson and Dawn Staley matched with a gold in the 2014 FIBA U18 Americas Championship. Staley went on to assist on USA Basketball’s FIBA World Championship gold-medal team that same year. The next summer, Wilson and Staley claimed the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship gold.

The most recent medals came from freshman Tyasha Harris who steered the U18 team to gold in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship and junior transfer Alexis Jennings, who brought home bronze from the 2016 FIBA 3×3 World Championship.

Helping Hands

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley likes to say that with good movement, the ball will find who is supposed to shoot it on any given possession. With four 1,000-point scorers on this season’s team, many observers wondered how the quartet would abide that philosophy.

Early returns are good as the Gamecocks lead the SEC and rank 33rd in the nation in assists per game at 16.7. The quartet of 1,000-point scorers account for 8.8 assists per game of that average with Allisha Gray leading the way at 2.9 and Kaela Davis just behind at 2.7.

As a team, the Gamecocks have assisted on at least half their field goals 11 times in 14 games, including two games assisting on at least two-thirds of their made baskets ââ’¬” vs. Minnesota (Dec. 11), at Auburn (Jan. 5).

Gray Area

Junior transfer Allisha Gray may be the Gamecocks’ most quiet and consistent offensive powerhouse, scoring in double figures in 10 games this season, including opening her inaugural Gamecock season with five straight double-digit scoring outings.

The unassuming six-foot guard amassed 1,000 points in her first two seasons at North Carolina and kicked off her South Carolina career with a 24-point outing at No. 7/6 Ohio State that included 10-of-18 shooting and some of the most momentum-killing baskets of the game. She scores 12.7 points per game (26th in the SEC) on 48.9 percent shooting.

Gray’s contributions go beyond the scoring column, though. She leads the team with 41 assists (2.9 apg), including seven games of at least three. Gray also adds 4.1 rebounds per game with five games of five or more boards. In fact, she has twice led the team in rebounding ââ’¬” Saint Peter’s (Nov. 22), at Duke (Dec. 4).