December 18, 2001

No. 22 South Carolina recorded its sixth largest margin of victory in school history Tuesday night with a 94-34 drubbing of visiting Coastal Carolina in women’s basketball action at the Carolina Coliseum.

The Lady Gamecocks (9-1) ended the final 7:11 of the first half on a 20-2 run and opened the first 8:09 of the second half with a 22-0 spurt to rout the overmatched Chants (4-5). USC dominated all facets of the game, shooting an impressive 50.7% from the floor while holding Coastal to just 24.5%. Coastal’s 34-point final output tied the least amount of points scored by a USC opponent all-time, a mark also set by Wheeling in 1979.

“Our defense was very good tonight,” said Carolina Head Coach Susan Walvius. “I am very pleased we stuck with it. We played some of our best minutes all season, and our depth was very good.”

Offensively, USC scored 20 first half points in the paint and 30 of its 54-second half points in the paint to lead to the high shooting percentage. Defensively, the Lady Gamecocks forced 31 Chants turnovers and converted those chances into 46 points, mostly breakaway layups. USC committed just 10 turnovers of their own, a season best tally.

South Carolina had four players score in double figures for a well-balanced attack. Jocelyn Penn led the charge with 29 points and nine rebounds while Shaun Gortman pitched in 18 points and 10 rebounds for a double double. Kelly Morrone added 15 points behind 6-of-11 shooting while Teresa Geter scored 14 points of her own on the night.

Nikki Reddick scored 19 points on 6-of-22 shooting to lead the Chants in scoring. No other Coastal player reached double figure scoring against the suffocating USC defense.

USC is back in action Thursday night when they face rival North Carolina at the ACC-SEC Challenge in Myrtle Beach, S.C.