Jan. 7, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 5/5 South Carolina goes back on the road this weekend, traveling to Florida for a noon tipoff on Sunday on ESPNU. The Gamecocks (12-1, 2-0 SEC) have won the last seven against the Gators (9-6, 2-0 SEC) and take four Naismith Trophy Top 50 Preseason Watch List selections into Gainesville.

South Carolina Notables

• South Carolina is 7-4 against Florida in the Dawn Staley era after winning the last seven meetings. Of the 11 games played in her era, five were decided by single digits with three of those going the Gamecocks’ way.
• South Carolina is back in the AP Poll’s top five this week, marking the 47th entry in the top five in the Dawn Staley era. That stretch includes 42 weeks in the top three and 12 at No. 1.
• With the Gamecocks’ win at Auburn, head coach Dawn Staley celebrated her 200th win at South Carolina, making her the fastest in program history to the mark. In just her ninth season, she needed just 277 games to reach the plateau, 35 fewer than Nancy Wilson, who reached the mark in her 11th season at the helm.
• Led by one of the best point guards in U.S. women’s basketball history, the Gamecocks lead the SEC and rank 25th in the nation in assists per game (17.2) and have assisted on at least half their field goals 11 times in 13 games this season, including two games assisting on at least two-thirds of their baskets ââ’¬” Minnesota 29 of 38 (Dec. 11) and at Auburn 20 of 28 (Jan. 5).
• South Carolina’s 14 3s made at Auburn Thursday night were just the third-most in program history (second-most this season), but with juniors Bianca Cuevas-Moore and Kaela Davis leading the way with five each, the effort marked the first time that two Gamecocks each netted at least five 3s in the same game.
• Junior forward A’ja Wilson has been a beast on the glass lately, averaging 9.2 rebounds in the last five games. In SEC play, she averages a double-double with a team-high 10.0 rebounds per game to go with her 16.5 points per outing.
• Playing every possession with passion on both ends of the floor and equally engaged on offense even without the ball, senior center Alaina Coates is committed to putting an exclamation point on her final season. Averaging a double-double, she is among the nation’s top 20 in field goal percentage (2nd, .696), rebounds (18th, 10.4) and double-doubles (16th, 8). She is just the second Gamecock ever to reach 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds and stands second in program history in career rebounds (1,065) and double-doubles (50).

By the Numbers

8 Games this season in which South Carolina has held its opponent under 30.0 percent field goal shooting
12 Games scoring in double figures for A’ja Wilson, the most on the team this season
19 Quarters this season in which the Gamecocks have out-scored their opponent by double digits
50 Career double-doubles by Alaina Coates, the most by a Gamecock since the 1980-81 season
57.5 Percent of South Carolina’s offense that came via the 3-point shot at Auburn (42 of 73 points)

Florida Series Notes

The Gators lead the series 20-15, but the Gamecocks have won the last seven and are 7-4 against Florida in the Dawn Staley era, including a 3-2 record in Gainesville.

Since Staley joined South Carolina for the 2008-09 season, five games in the series have been decided by singles digits with three going the Gamecocks’ way. Three of the five have been played in Gainesville with Florida claiming two wins in those outings.

The Gamecocks’ last trip to Gainesville yielded the most lopsided win in recent history as then-No. 1 South Carolina posted a 77-42 win on Jan. 19, 2015, behind a dominant first half. The Gamecocks built a 40-17 halftime lead after holding the Gators to just 21.6 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

SEC Stories

Head coach Dawn Staley has steadily lifted the Gamecocks’ national profile by building the Gamecocks into a consistent SEC contender with three straight regular-season titles, shirking decades of difficulty in the nation’s best women’s basketball conference.

In her ninth season at the helm, Staley boasts an 85-43 (.664) SEC regular-season record and has finished outside the league’s top five just twice ââ’¬” an unprecedented achievement for a program that had finished INSIDE the top five only two times in the previous 17 seasons. Staley’s 84 wins include five seasons of double-digit league victories ââ’¬” 10 in 2012, 11 in 2013, an SEC-best 14 in 2014 and 15 in 2015, and 16 in 2016 ââ’¬” and account for 57.4 percent of the program’s all-time 148 league wins.

Staley’s SEC regular-season record includes a 47-18 (.723) mark at home and a 38-25 (.603) slate on the road.

League Legends

The Gamecocks are the only team in the nation to boast two former WNBA All-Stars on their coaching staff in head coach Dawn Staley and assistant coach Nikki McCray-Penson. Five other programs tout multiple WNBA alums ââ’¬” Miami, Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Vanderbilt ââ’¬” but only Beth Cunningham at Notre Dame and Tina Thompson at Texas earned All-Star status at least once in their time in the league.

South Carolina has the added bonus of its other two coaches ââ’¬” associate head coach Lisa Boyer and assistant coach Fred Chmiel ââ’¬” having experience coaching in the WNBA as well.

Start Me Up!

After test driving it once in non-conference action, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley made the move at the start of SEC play to change the point guard in her starting lineup from junior Bianca Cuevas-Moore to freshman Tyasha Harris. The move seems to have benefitted the individuals as much as the team, and other than the name “starter” not much as changed as one averages nearly the same amount of time on the court as the other with 23.0 minutes for Harris and 22.0 for Cuevas-Moore.

In the three games she has come off the bench ââ’¬” Minnesota, Alabama, at Auburn ââ’¬” Cuevas-Moore has averaged 3.0 assists and 11.3 points on 52.5 percent field goal shooting, including 66.7 percent from 3-point range. In her other 10 games this season, the Bronx, N.Y., native posted 6.8 points per game on 33.8 percent shooting (28.0 percent from 3-point range) and 2.5 assists per game.

Thrust in the spotlight in charge of orchestrating the established offensive weapons that surround her in the opening minutes of the game, Harris answered by delivering 4.7 assists per game and 7.0 points per outing on 53.3 percent shooting, including 50.0 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers are up strongly from her 1.8 apg, 4.2 ppg on 41.0 percent shooting (46.7 percent from 3).