Nov. 21, 2009

Game Notes in PDF Format

Game Information

Penn State Series: PSU leads 4-3; In Columbia: Tied 1-1; In University Park: PSU leads 3-2
Radio: WISW 1320 AM and GamecocksOnline.com (Brad Muller and Marcy Girton)
Television: SportSouth (Tom Werme and Debbie Antonelli

South Carolina Notables

• This is the program’s 36th season as a varsity sport.
• The Gamecocks are 67-32 all-time in the month of November, including a 3-2 mark during the month last season.
• South Carolina is playing its third game in seven days today.
• With a double-double at Clemson Thursday night, Kelsey Bone became the first Gamecock freshman ever to open her career with back-to-back double-doubles.
• The Gamecocks are fourth in the SEC in field goal percentage (.448) and lead the league in 3-point field goal percentage (.500).
• South Carolina travels to St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., for its next three game at the Paradise Jam before coming back to Colonial Life Arena for a three-game stint.

Notes

A South Carolina Win Would…

• Snap a four-game losing streak to the Lady Lions,
• Be head coach Dawn Staley’s first over Penn State and improve her record against teams from her homestate of Pennsylvania to 36-5.

Last Time Out…
South Carolina played its second-straight overtime game this season, suffering a hard-fought 94-92 loss at archrival Clemson Thursday night. Freshman Kelsey Bone led the way with 32 points and 14 boards, but poor free throw shooting led to the Gamecocks’ unraveling as they hit just 18-of-34 attempts from the charity stripe. The Tigers netted two more free throws in the game for the difference in the final score.

Scouting Penn State
The Lady Lions opened the season 3-0 behind Naismith Award Preseason Watch List selection Tyra Grant. The senior guard has scored 15.3 points and pulled down 6.3 rebounds per game. Junior swingman Julia Trogele is right behind Grant with 10.0 points and a team-high 8.0 boards per outing.

As a team, the Lady Lions average 75.7 points on 44.1 percent field goal shooting, including 29.7 percent from the 3-point line, and 78.1 percent accuracy from the free-throw line. Penn State is out-rebounding its opponents by 8.3 boards per outing. The Lady Lions have allowed their first two opponents just 60.0 points per game on 34.0 percent shooting, including 23.4 percent from 3-point range.

Penn State head coach Coquese Washington is in her third season as a head coach with a 27-36 record.

Penn State Series Notes
The Lady Lions lead the series 4-3 after winning the last four meetings. The two teams faced off in the 2008-09 season opener at Penn State with the Gamecocks suffering a 56-42 defeat in head coach Dawn Staley’s debut for the Garnet and Black. The teams have played twice in Columbia with each winning once. The Lady Lions won the most recent meeting at Colonial Life Arena, a 70-63 decision on Nov. 20, 2007. The Gamecocks’ last win in the series was a 66-63 finish on Jan. 18, 1983, in Columbia.

South Carolina is 16-12 all-time against Big Ten schools.

Staley is 0-1 against the Lady Lions in her coaching career. She is 35-5 against teams from her homestate of Pennsylvania, suffering losses to just Villanova (3), Penn State (1) and Penn (1).

Homemade
South Carolina is 24-9 all-time in home openers, winning seven of its last eight Columbia debuts. Since opening Colonial Life Arena on Nov. 22, 2002, the Gamecocks are 72-42 on their home floor, including an all-time best record of 14-2 (.875) in the first season.

Extra! Extra!
Playing extra time in its first two games of the season, South Carolina is now 12-12 all-time in overtime games. It marks the first time the Gamecocks have played multiple overtime games in a season since the 1995-96 campaign, during which South Carolina went 1-3 in four extra-period outings. It is the first time the Gamecocks have played back-to-back overtime games in program history.

The win at Charlotte was the Gamecocks’ second-straight overtime win as South Carolina knocked off Mississippi State 72-66 on Feb. 25, 2007. The win was the Gamecocks’ first overtime road victory since their 87-81 upset of then-No. 9 Duke on Nov. 25, 2001.

The double-overtime affair at Clemson was just the fourth such game in South Carolina history, and the Gamecocks are just 1-3 in those lengthy outings. The last time South Carolina was involved in a double-overtime game was a 97-91 loss at Georgia on Feb. 13, 2003, when the Gamecocks were ranked 15th in the nation and the Lady Bulldogs were No. 16. South Carolina’s lone double-overtime win was a 92-91 decision at then-No. 22 Florida State on Feb. 4, 1991.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley is now 10-6 in overtime games in her career. The victory against Charlotte was her first OT win at the Gamecocks’ helm but was her third straight victory in extra time. The loss at Clemson was Staley’s first result in a double-overtime game.

Rare Air
With 32 points and 14 rebounds at Clemson, Kelsey Bone became the first freshman in South Carolina history to record back-to-back double-doubles to open her Gamecock career. Her 22-point, 11-rebound effort at Charlote to open the season made her the first Gamecock to debut with a double-double since Demetress Adams scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against High Point on Nov. 18, 2005.

Bone’s stats in her first two games already place her among the program’s top freshman. Her 32 points at Clemson are the third-most by a first-year Gamecock, trailing just Sharon Gilmore’s school-record 40 at Florida International (Feb. 7, 1983) and Schonna Banner’s 37 against Cincinnati (Jan. 9, 1987). With 14 rebounds at Clemson, Bone is the fourth Gamecock freshman to snag that many boards, the most recent being Iva Sliskovic against Charlotte on Dec. 14, 2003. Banner owns the program’s freshman record with 15 rebounds against Southern Miss on March 7, 1987. Bone’s 12 field goals made match Banner’s school record for freshmen (against Cincinnati Jan. 9, 1987), and her 23 field goal attempts match Jordan Jones’ Gamecock freshman record, which she set against North Carolina A&T on March 21, 2008.

Twice as Nice
With sophomore Charenee Stephens and freshman Kelsey Bone both posting double-digit rebounds (12 and 11, respectively) at Charlotte, it was the first time Gamecock teammates had reached the plateau since Demetress Adams and Ilona Burgrova pulled down 12 and 10 rebounds, respectively, against Savannah State on Jan. 6, 2008. If Stephens had managed just one more point, the two would have become the first Gamecock tandem with double-doubles since Adams (16 pts/11 reb) and Jewel May (10 pts/12 reb) did it against High Point on Dec. 5, 2008.

Bone and Valerie Nainima netting 22 points against the 49ers also gave the Gamecocks a pair of players with 20 or more points in a game for the first time since Jordan Jones (31) and Brionna Dickerson (25) combined for the feat in the first round of the WNIT against North Carolina A&T on March 21, 2008.

Bone and La’Keisha Sutton went on to repeat the feat in the next game at Clemson with 32 and 22 points, respectively.