Nov. 19, 2004
Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina women’s basketball team suffered a 71-53 exhibition defeat at the hands of Everyone’s Internet Friday at the Colonial Center.
Everyone’s Internet was a team comprised mostly of WNBA players, including Houston Comet guard Felicia Ragland, who finished with 19 points. Backcourt mate Kesha Watson added a game-high 22 points. The Gamecocks were led by Stacy Booker, who scored 13 points.
USC struggled to get into any kind of offensive flow going with two of its key scorers slumping. Lauren Simms, who averaged 16.5 points per game during the Gamecocks’ first two games of the year, finished with 12 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, but the bulk of those points came late in the game when the game was already decided. Junior Sarah Burgess continued to struggle, finishing with three points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field.
Sophomore forward Iva Sliskovic did not play Friday, as she was sidelined with a concussion sustained in practice this week.
The Gamecocks return to action at 7:30 p.m. on November 27 when they host Jacksonville in the regular-season home opener at the Colonial Center.
Post-game comments
Susan Walvius
(opening comments) Thanks everyone for being here tonight. We have a team that is going to be very good. We were not smart offensively and we shot the ball poorly. Wee went 3-21 from three point and rushed offensively. Defensively we had very bad help. We spent a lot of time talking about it in the locker room. I like the athleticism. I don’t think we are going to have a good year but I really do believe that we are going to have a great year.
(shot selection) They played the wide zone. We talked about it during our timeouts. We broke down the zone defense a few times. When we did that we got good looks and got good second chance opportunities when the shot didn’t fall.
(second chance opportunities off 14 offensive rebounds) I think that is really important. To be a great team you have to be a good rebounding team. I was happy on the offensive side but not particularly the defensive side. The athleticism is really paying off for us. We didn’t do a good job of taking advantage of our size in our half court offense.
(missing Sliskovic) She is our returning scorer and rebounder. She can communicate and provide some leadership. That will help us a lot.
(building an identity off of the full court press) We have pressed more lately. We have more players on our team this season. Pressing requires some talented depth. I think we can be a good team that will force teams to have some trouble. Having a 30 second shot clock will make teams rush so if we can get back to a zone defense and play good defense that will make them rush even more and hopefully force bad shots.
(team scoring drought) My thinking is when we establish two go-to players we can get them the ball. Right now Lauren Simms is really stepping up and we need one or two more players to get up there. I think there is a lot of freedom right now with our team on the offensive side of the ball. We want to see what our young kids can do and see if they can step up for us. Once we get a chance to see who can step up, we will get the ball to those players when we get to the heart of our schedule.
Lauren Simms
I think we need to come to practice with our mind set and work on our communication. Work on our communication especially on defense. We also need to give encouragement to each other when things aren’t going well and try to stay focused in the game.
(Trying to stop Watson and Ragland) We were not able to help and get back on them. We didn’t rotate quick enough to get over there but we weren’t in position to do that.
Stacy Booker
(getting into an offensive rhythm) Whatever is open for me I’ll take it. I don’t want to rush anything but if I’m open I’ll put it up. I want to be a player that will step up for our team.
