I thought the season opener against Penn State was ugly. The home opener tonight, against arch-rival Clemson, was much worse–I saw this one in person and got a horrible sense of deja vu as the Gamecocks dug themselves into a very deep hole and then worked themselves to the point of exhaustion, trying to climb back out.

The first half saw the home team get behind by 17 points at 10-27, then work their way back into the game (almost) by halftime, closing the gap to 7 points at 24-31.The shooting was horrible, again. The Gamecocks hit only 9 of 29 shots in the first half (31%), led by Miranda Tate’s 3 for 3 shooting from the floor and 1-1 from the free throw line and Cocoa Falohun’s 6 points on 2 for 3 shooting from the floor and 2-2 on free throws. Demetress Adams was unable to get her hands on the ball, most of the first half, except by grabbing a rebound. She led both teams in rebounding in the first half with 8.
 

 

On the other side of the floor, Clemson’s Lele Hardy, April Parker and Whitney Hood pretty much had their way with the Gamecocks, scoring 11, 8 and 8 points, respectively, and shooting nearly 44% in the first half. Hardy ended up as the leading scorer in the game with 17 points and 7 steals and Parker and Hood each had 10 for the contest.. Tasha Taylor led the Clemson team in rebounding with 6 and also led in assists, with 5.

The Gamecocks were wildly inconsistent for the entire game, turning the ball over too much and missing crucial baskets. There were only 6 assists for USC against 24 turnovers, which pretty well demonstrates the kind of chaos that was their offensive game. While they were able to tighten up the defense enough to knock Clemson’s shooting percentage down to 37% for the game, they were unable to improve their own shooting and ended with a shooting percentage of only 32.7%. But the biggest problem for the Gamecocks was the inability to keep the post players on the floor and in the game. Demetress Adams picked up 2 fouls early in the first half and was only marginally effective after that. Adams finished with 11 rebounds, but only 2 points. Cocoa Falohun was the leading scorer for the Gamecocks with 10 points; freshmen Tonia Williams and Miranda Tate each contributed 8 points.

When you look at Clemson's box score, you would probably expect that they lost the game. They scored only 52 points, shot 37% from the floor and 17% from 3-point land and had 20 turnovers. But the Gamecocks were even worse in each of those categories.