Why Clemson made things crazy for South Carolina women’s basketball, Dawn Staley

CLEMSON — It was an exciting first half for Clemson fans.

for fans South Carolina women’s basketball That was worrying at times for the player who made the trip to LittleJohn Coliseum on Wednesday, especially in the first half.

No. 1 Gamecocks (5-0) defeated Clemson 77-45 for them 43-consecutive victory, registration for a new program.

The win was a bit ugly, as the Tigers (3-1) had the better half of South Carolina for most of the first half, especially in the first quarter.

The Tigers had much more energy and offense, which forced the Gamecocks into bad shots. Even when they got a clean sheet, they couldn’t finish the game, shooting 5-of-21 in the first quarter.

Five minutes into the second quarter, South Carolina had missed 12 layups. With approximately 4:58 remaining, we capped off a slow and sloppy first half with a 17-0 run.

“At the beginning of the game, you give everyone their best effort and sometimes we get out of sorts and sometimes we’re tighter than we should be,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “We’re simplifying, I think we’re trying to do too many things, we’re playing too fast, I think Clemson forced us to play at their pace and it was a little crazy for us.”

Inconsistencies plague the Gamecocks’ offense and there is a lack of connection at times.

Clemson collapsed while South Carolina was inside the 3-point line. The Gamecocks are taking a lot of dribble shots, so they have difficulty with the flow, and as a result, there are a lot of 1-on-1s going to the basket and a lot of missed layups.

South Carolina committed the same amount of turnovers as it had assists and finished just 33-of-77 from the field.

Staley said last week that guards had not been in touch for some reason, and by Wednesday it was clear the problem had not been resolved. Raven Johnson finished 2/7 from the field and is now 7/35. MiLaysia Fulwiley had a season-low seven points.

“It was the beginning of the season, people are playing us very differently, last year we played freely because there was no pressure on us, no one was thinking about us,” Staley said. “We’re still trying to find our feet, they’re getting better, I’ve got no doubt we’ll get along.”

Defensively, South Carolina had no trouble as the Tigers finished 13-of-51 from the field and forced more turnovers than turnovers at 19.

“When we want to get going offensively, we have to stop the defense, that’s how we have to start games from now on… when we get off to fast starts on defense, we’re locked in, we have a pretty good offense,” he said. South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao finished the game with a team-high 13 points.

Ashlyn Watkins added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Gamecocks.

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The Gamecocks held 14 points off turnovers and held Clemson to three points off the bench, 10 points in the paint, and allowed just five layups the entire game, reflecting their physical defense.

“I think our defense is a little bit better than our offense right now,” Staley said. “It’s not a bad place to be because we know we can shoot… we’re not doing it efficiently, but we’ll figure it out.”

Lulu Certain covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and USA TODAY Network. Email him/her [email protected] and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin

This article was first published in Greenville News: Why did Clemson make things crazy for South Carolina women’s basketball?