Jan. 19, 2017
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senior center Alaina Coates posted her fourth-straight double-double, and junior guards Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray reached double figures to carry No. 5/5 South Carolina to a 65-46 win over Ole Miss Thursday night at Colonial Life Arena. The victory marked the ninth-straight win over the Rebels for the Gamecocks, who improved to 16-1 overall and 6-0 in SEC action. Ole Miss sits at 13-6 for the year and 2-4 in the conference following the loss.
Strong defensive efforts to end the first and second quarters and a productive opening 20 minutes from Coates established a 15-point lead at the half for Carolina. Coates finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds and nearly notched a first-half double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds through two quarters. Davis scored seven points in the third quarter to finish the night with 14, while Gray netted eight first-quarter points and totaled 11 for the game to go along with four assists, all of which came in the first half.
The Gamecocks did a good job of getting to the line in the early going, and a pair of free throws from Davis put them in front 12-7 midway through the first quarter. Coates sparked the Carolina offense over the next few minutes with a put-back basket followed by a great outlet pass to set up Gray for the transition layup to make it 16-9 with 2:42 left in the period. An acrobatic layup on the left block from Gray less than two minutes later gave the junior her third field goal of the quarter and handed the Gamecocks a 20-11 lead as the two teams headed to the first break. Gray led all scorers with eight points through 10 minutes for a Carolina team that knocked in all six of its first-quarter free throw attempts and held the Rebels scoreless for the final 2:31 of the period.
Ole Miss scored eight of the first 12 points of the second quarter to cut the Gamecock lead to five at 24-19 with 6:19 left to play in the half before Coates and the defense again provided the response for Carolina. A great look inside from freshman guard Tyasha Harris resulted in an easy layup for the center, and Coates converted from the paint 32 seconds later to make it 28-19 with 4:37 remaining in the quarter. The basket pushed the point total to double-digits for the senior, who teamed up with Gray to tally 18 of Carolina’s first 28 points of the game. The two capped off their impressive first-half chemistry with another basket late in the quarter when Gray again found Coates on the block for a bucket that sent Carolina into the locker room with a commanding 37-22 advantage. The Gamecock defense turned in another strong performance down the stretch of the quarter, and Carolina ended the half on a 13-3 run after holding Ole Miss to just one field goal over the final six minutes of the half. Coates posted a first-half line of 12 points and eight rebounds, while Gray chipped in four assists to go along with her eight points.
The Gamecock backcourt carried Carolina’s offense out of the break, scoring all of the team’s 14 points in the third period. Back-to-back field goals from Davis made it 41-25 Gamecocks, and a layup by Harris followed by a free throw from Gray stretched the lead to 44-25 with 6:47 to play in the quarter. Guard Doniyah Cliney’s first field goal of the night halted a 6-0 run by the Rebels and gave Carolina a 46-31 cushion, and another jumper from inside the paint by the sophomore kept it a 15-point margin at 48-33 with 2:15 remaining in the period. Davis closed the quarter with three free throws over the final 1:29 to reach seven points for the period and push her point total to 14, and the Gamecocks headed to the last quarter leading 51-35.
Junior Bianca Cuevas-Moore found her stroke in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, and the guard’s 3-pointer and jumper from the left side extended the Carolina advantage to 57-40 with seven minutes remaining in the contest. The pair of baskets triggered a 7-0 run for the Gamecocks that was capped off by a layup from Coates to make it 59-40. Carolina remained comfortably in front the rest of the way, and freshman forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan provided the exclamation point on the Gamecocks’ strong defensive night with an emphatic block with 1:57 to play in the game. Herbert Harrigan notched Carolina’s final bucket of the game with a put-back basket to tally her first points of the evening.
Both teams ended the night with just two 3-pointers, and Carolina held a 41-31 advantage on the glass. The Gamecocks shot 40.4 percent from the floor and scored 22 points off 18 Ole Miss turnovers.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Dawn Staley
On Carolina’s run in the second quarter that gave the Gamecocks control heading into halftime
“We knew that [Ole Miss was] going to hang around a little. No one is going to lie down and die on us, obviously every time we play it’s a big game for everybody. You can’t beat them in one quarter; it takes a 40-minute period. I thought that we got up and moving in transition a little bit and got some stops and pulled away.”
GAMECHANGER
Carolina’s 13-3 run to end the second quarter turned a 24-19 lead into a 37-22 cushion at the half. The Rebels managed just one field goal over the final six minutes of the period.
KEY STAT
Led by junior guard Kaela Davis, the Gamecock backcourt provided a bulk of the scoring for Carolina after halftime. The unit accounted for 23 of the team’s 28 second-half points, with Davis scoring seven points in the third quarter.
NOTABLES
- Five of South Carolina’s six wins in SEC play this season have come by at least 15 points.
- Thursday was the fifth time the Gamecocks held an opponent to three or fewer 3-pointers in a game this season.
- Carolina has boasted the rebound advantage in eight of its nine home games on the year.
- Senior Alaina Coates’ 15 rebounds against the Rebels were the most for the center in SEC play this season. The performance marked her second game on the year with 15 or more rebounds.
UP NEXT
The Gamecocks continue SEC play with a top-five battle against No. 4/4 Mississippi State on Mon., Jan. 23, at Colonial Life Arena. The matchup between the remaining unbeaten teams in SEC play gets underway at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
