Women's Basketball . April 14, 2021

Another Standout Season for Women's Basketball

South Carolina women’s basketball (26-5, 14-2 SEC) completed another standout season under head coach Dawn Staley in 2020-21, ranking No. 6 in the final AP Poll (released before the NCAA Tournament) and No. 4 in the final USA Today Coaches Poll.

GAMECOCK NOTABLES

South Carolina reached the Final Four for the third time in the last six NCAA Tournaments. In those three trips, it lost two games by a combined two points and by the identical scores.
The Gamecocks earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the last seven tournaments after playing the toughest schedule in the country, including 14 games against teams ranked in the final AP or USA Today Coaches Poll. Their opponents had a combined .685 winning percentage, which topped LSU, Arizona, Texas and UConn.
South Carolina finished second in the SEC this season and went on to win its sixth SEC Tournament in the last seven seasons. The Gamecocks have not finished lower than second in the league standings since 2013.
The Gamecocks won 83.9 percent of their games in 2020-21 and have won at least 80.0 percent of their games in seven of the last eight seasons.
South Carolina’s 168 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25 Poll is the fourth-longest active streak in the nation, trailing just UConn, Baylor and Maryland.
Unanimous First-Team All-American Aliyah Boston was a finalist for the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Awards. It marked the seventh time in the last eight seasons that a Gamecock was a finalist for at least one of the primary national player of the year awards. Boston was the only player to be named a 2021 finalist for both the Naismith Trophy and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
Head coach Dawn Staley crossed a significant coaching milestone this season, posting her 500th career victory in the Gamecocks’ NCAA Tournament opener against Mercer (Mar. 21). Her all-time winning percentage of .833 (503-183) ranks 13th in the nation among active head coaches with at least 10 seasons of experience. Staley’s 152 SEC victories rank second among active league coaches and fourth all-time. Her .738 SEC winning percentage (152-54) is second only to Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (.874) in league history.
The Gamecocks were dominant on the glass throughout the season and were never out-rebounded. They finished fourth in the country in rebounds per game (47.9) and third in rebounding margin (+14.4). Both are new school records.
South Carolina’s defense was among the stingiest in the country, especially against the best teams in the country. On the season, the Gamecocks held an opponent under 60 points 13 times and allowed an opponent to score 70 or more point just five times in 31 games. In 14 games against ranked opponents, just four reached the 70-point mark with five held under 60 points and the other five limited to the 60s.
For the second-straight season, a pair of Gamecocks earned First-Team All-SEC honors with Boston and Zia Cooke claiming spots on the team. Boston went on to earn SEC co-Defensive Player of the Year, her second season winning at least a share of that award.
Cooke closed the season with some of her best basketball, earning NCAA Hemisfair Region MOP honors and a spot on the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament team. Over the final four games of the season, she posted 16.2 points per game on 42.1 percent shooting, including 47.8 percent from 3-point range.
Junior point guard Destanni Henderson was the unsung engine that made the Gamecocks go. She led the SEC in assists per game (5.1) while ranking third on the team in scoring (12.2 ppg). She scored in double figures in 22 of 31 games while handing out five or more assists 17 times. On the season, she was the Gamecocks’ most reliable 3-point shooter, hitting 41.4 percent, the eighth-best single-season percentage in program history.
Forwards Victaria Saxton and Laeticia Amihere finished their seasons with some of the best performances of their careers. In five NCAA Tournament games, Saxton (10.2) and Amihere (10.0) both averaged double-figure points and shot over 51.0 percent from the field. Amihere lifted her rebounding average to 7.6 in the tournament and set a Gamecock NCAA Tournament record with nine blocked shots against Texas (Mar. 30), which all came in the second half.
In the NCAA Tournament, Brea Beal was third on the team in minutes per game (33.2) and third in rebounding average (7.4), both increases over her season averages.

BY THE NUMBERS
0 South Carolina was not out-rebounded in a game all season long. Only one team matched the Gamecocks on the glass (Tennessee).

3 The Gamecocks are one of three programs to play in at least three of the last six NCAA Final Fours – UConn (6), Notre Dame (3), South Carolina (3). Each have at least one national title in that time.

4.8 The average final AP Poll ranking of the five teams that defeated South Carolina this season was 4.8. Four of the five reached at least the NCAA Sweet 16.

5.8 The Gamecocks lost their five games this season by an average of just 5.8 points.

6 In 2021, South Carolina claimed its sixth SEC Tournament title in the last seven seasons.

8 The Gamecocks ranked in the nation’s top 10 in eight stats.

21 Of the Gamecocks’ 26 wins, 21 were decided by double digits, including six of their nine wins over ranked opponents.

27 In 2020-21, 27 season or game team and individual program records were tied or broken.