Confidence. It’s that one intangible that can separate two equally talented teams. You won’t find instructions on obtaining confidence in a playbook. But when a team finally gets that confident psychological edge, it shows up on the court, almost like a sixth member of the squad.
South Carolina opened practice on Saturday, October 15th confidently looking forward to a bright and successful 2000-2001 season. The squad featured nine returning players, five promising freshmen plus an eligible Teresa Geter who had transferred from Tennessee in 1999 and sat out the 1999-2000 season. Finally after three years, Head Coach Susan Walvius had a team with the talent, size and heart to compete in the Southeastern Conference.
Just as quickly as practice started, the team began to lose veterans members of the team. The team’s emotional on-court leader, junior Jocelyn Penn, left school to take a medical redshirt year. Defensive specialist Crishna Hill’s August knee injury would need additional surgery and forced the junior to the sidelines for the season. Just off a sensational freshman year, guard Kelly Morrone underwent back surgery to repair a herniated disc and missed the entire 2000-2001 season. Take the loss of these three key Lady Gamecocks and Shaunzinski Gortman and Teresa Geter’s slow recoveries from knee surgeries, and suddenly a confident, experienced squad was looking for its center of gravity.
Entering the December 21st game against ACC power North Carolina, USC was a talented team that had lost its confident edge. In her prior four seasons at USC, Walvius had put together demanding non-conference schedules to get the team prepared for the SEC battles. But this time, even the coach admits that she might have overscheduled a bit. Facing four NCAA Tournament teams in its first eight games, South Carolina’s inexperience in playing together led to disappointing losses. Playing seven games (four of those on the road) in 13 days, South Carolina needed someone to step forward and take the team on her back. In the contest against North Carolina, the team heard from four players who led the confidence renewal.
Down by 20 points to North Carolina at halftime, the junior foursome of Shaunzinski Gortman, Tatyana Troina, Shannon Segres and Teresa Geter scrapped and fought to get the Lady Gamecocks back in the game. With Gortman’s 20 points, Troina’s 18 points and 11 rebounds, Segres’ three consecutive three-pointers and Geter’s eight boards and two blocks, USC found itself only down by one point with 48 seconds left to play. The Lady Gamecocks didn’t win the game that night but saw that they had the talent to play against anyone in the country. That realization led to a different second season for the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks.
In its next game on December 28th, South Carolina defeated the Charlotte 49ers on their home court, 61-43. After being down to the 49ers by one point at the half, USC exploded in the second half for the victory. With only 3:40 left in the game, the USC defense had only allowed Charlotte 12 points in the second half and threatened the school defensive mark of 14 opponent points in a half. UNCC’s six points in the next 180 seconds killed South Carolina’s new record but the 18 opponent second-half points was still the fifth best defensive performance in school history.
Entering the SEC schedule, South Carolina might have looked back fondly at earlier seasons when it went undefeated in November and December but was unprepared for SEC teams. The 2000-2001 season was the opposite. Challenged early in the season by talented non-conference teams, the Lady Gamecocks were prepared to face its conference rivals.
South Carolina opened up the 2001 SEC schedule with back-to-back home games against Arkansas and Auburn. On January 2nd, USC welcomed the Lady Razorbacks to the Carolina Coliseum. Entering the game with a 8-3 record, the Razorbacks owned a 9-1 record against USC and had not lost to South Carolina since 1993. Arkansas had reason to be confident coming into this game but it was the Lady Gamecocks’ time to shine. With Teresa Geter’s layup to start the game, South Carolina took the opening 2-0 lead and never trailed. After USC held single-digit leads in the first half, the second half was a different tale as the Lady Gamecocks opened up margins as large as 19 points in the 66-49 victory. The team flourished by shooting 54% from the field with four players scoring in double figures. Just a week after allowing Charlotte only 18 second half points, South Carolina repeated its defensive feat as Arkansas managed only 18 second half points.
On Sunday, January 7th, the #20 Auburn Tigers ventured into the Carolina Coliseum with a 13-1 record and enjoying a 13-6 all-time advantage against South Carolina. The Lady Gamecocks defeated the Tigers, 87-60, to earn their second consecutive SEC victory and the team’s third win in a row. It was the first time that a South Carolina squad had opened the SEC season with two straight victories.
For her outstanding performances in these two contests, junior Teresa Geter earned the SEC Player of the Week honors. She became the third Lady Gamecock to win the award and first since Annie Lester in the 1999-2000 season. In the contest against Arkansas, Geter chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds and five steals. Against Auburn, the Columbia-native blocked a career high six Tiger shots and scored 20 points.
Now 2-0 in the SEC, South Carolina made its first SEC road trip of the season to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. Both teams were tied for first place in the SEC but it was a Tennessee night from the opening tip as the Vols recorded a 99-45 victory over USC.
Other South Carolina squads might have taken the defeat at Tennessee as a blow to its confidence, but this Lady Gamecock squad rebounded three days later to defeat Alabama, 82-67, winning its first ever SEC road game and its first victory in Tuscaloosa in 20 years. Teresa Geter led all scorers with career highs of 34 points and six steals. South Carolina scored 52 second half points and shot 49.1% from the field in the win.
Playing in its third consecutive road contest, South Carolina fell to Vanderbilt, 85-56, on January 18th. The Lady Gamecocks controlled the backboards by a 41-to-22-margin but shot only 32.4% from the field.
South Carolina returned home with a 3-2 record in the SEC to face the Florida Gators on Sunday, January 21st. Ranked 10th in the country, Florida enjoyed a 10-game winning streak against the Lady Gamecocks. South Carolina led Florida through most of the first half but with 11 minutes left to play, USC couldn’t answer a 15-3 Gator run that gave Florida the victory, 97-85, in a high-scoring affair. Junior Tatyana Troina pushed USC into the lead with her four three-point baskets in the first half. The forward from Minsk, Belarus, went on to record seven three-pointers in the game and scored a career-high 26 points.
During the week, USC went out of the SEC and defeated a scrappy Wofford Terrier team on their home court, 87-45, to record its eighth victory of the season.
After falling at Florida on Super Bowl Sunday, 91-53, South Carolina entered the critical month of February. The team held three SEC victories with seven more conference games to go. With the school record of five SEC victories and a winning season dangling as reward, the team buckled down and looked to finish the season strong.
With two road games scheduled during the week, the Lady Gamecocks arrived in Auburn on Thursday, February 1st and recorded its second SEC road win of the season (and 10-year SEC history), 71-65. Three players finished in double figures while Teresa Geter notched her second career double-double.
South Carolina might have entered its next game on Sunday at Mississippi feeling a little too confident. Owning a 9-12 overall record and a 4-4 mark in the SEC, the Lady Gamecocks suffered a flat performance in front of 427 Mississippi fans and fell to the Lady Rebels, 69-53. The team shot 29% from the field and hit only four of its three-point opportunities. Although taller than Ole Miss, South Carolina lost the battle of the boards, 46 to 43.
After a disappointing 92-55 home loss to #6 Georgia, South Carolina rallied to win two consecutive games against Kentucky and Mississippi State, both in the Carolina Coliseum.
In the 70-62 victory over the Wildcats, Teresa Geter led all scorers with 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and rejected four Kentucky shots. With the win, South Carolina secured its fifth SEC win of the season and tied the school record from the 1992-93 season. And, the team still had four more conference games yet to play.
Tatyana Troina came off the bench to score 20 points to lead South Carolina to a 76-59 victory over Mississippi State on Thursday, February 15th. South Carolina shot 54% from the field and never trailed as the team won its sixth SEC game of the year, setting a school record.
With only two more regular season conference games to play, South Carolina took its 11-14 overall mark and 6-6 conference record at Kentucky. The team was eager to extend its success in the conference but suffered a disappointing 61-59 loss in the last seconds. Down early in the game to Kentucky, South Carolina rallied back and tied the game at 59 with Tatyana Troina’s three-point bomb from the baseline with only nine seconds to play. After a Kentucky timeout, the Wildcats inbounded the ball under the USC basket and caught South Carolina napping on a fast-break and the Lady Gamecocks were forced to foul to prevent the easy basket. Kentucky’s Rita Adams calmly netted the two foul shots and South Carolina could only watch as a last-second layup by Shaun Gortman rolled off the back rim. The bright spot in the game was Teresa Geter breaking the South Carolina season record with her 54th block of the year.
Playing at home in the last regular season game of the year, South Carolina fell to #14 LSU, 83-72. Although finishing in a tie for sixth place with Arkansas was quite an achievement for the team, South Carolina knew that it had let several conference victories slip out of its grasp. The sixth-place finish was the best SEC finish ever by the Lady Gamecocks and gave the team its best seeding ever going into the SEC Tournament. For the first time, a South Carolina team would occupy the higher-seeded locker room at the SEC Tournament and wear the home team white uniforms.
South Carolina entered the 2001 SEC Tournament as the sixth seed and faced the 11th-seeded Mississippi Lady Rebels. The Lady Gamecocks were determined to atone for an earlier loss to Ole Miss back in February but fell behind early and tried to scramble back to win. Down by 14 at halftime, 38-24, South Carolina couldn’t rally this time to win the game. The Lady Gamecocks cut the deficit to eight points with less than a minute to play but the Lady Rebels held on for a 75-68 victory.
“Each year, I think we’ve become more and more competitive in the Southeastern Conference,” Coach Walvius stated. “From a standpoint of luck, we certainly had some setbacks this year. I put together a non-conference schedule that would prepare our experienced team for the SEC. We scheduled games that we expected to win with Kelly Morrone’ leadership and outside shooting, with Jocelyn Penn’s scoring, rebounding and intangibles and the fiery defensive presence that Crishna Hill provided. They are the three most vocal members of our team and you can’t replace what they bring to the court overnight. As we got healthier, we became a better team.
“We didn’t use those injuries as excuses during the season. Other schools in the country faced obstacles and overcame them too. We had some very bright spots during the season that will hopefully help us win next season. We had two players, Teresa Geter and Shaunzinksi Gortman, named to the Second Team All-SEC squad this year. In a conference as deep as this one, that’s a real honor. Both players are juniors and will be back next season for another year. Ines Ajanovic was one of the nicest surprises of the year. She was finally healthy and improved consistently during the season.
“We didn’t accomplish our goals this season but we are getting closer,” said Head Coach Walvius. “Certainly we were excited about winning six SEC games this year, especially since we didn’t have any seniors and can build on our improvements next year. The success that we enjoyed this season is a positive but we won’t be satisfied with that next year. This program wants to compete for a national championship and we will continue to build in that direction.”
