The South Carolina women's basketball team survived a tough test on Sunday afternoon and came away with a 74-71 victory over the North Carolina State Wolfpack.

This was a great game for the fans, fast-paced and furious, with over a dozen lead changes. It was also an extremely physical contest, lots of shirt-grabbing, serious jockeying for position in the paint and at least one attempted tripping. Both teams used some pressure defenses to try to shake things up and it made for an exciting game. Though the total number of personal fouls committed were nearly equal, NC State made their fouls count for more by getting 9 more foul shots (32) than the Gamecocks (23) and hitting over 70% of them. Nearly a third of their points (23) were scored from the free throw line. That's pretty smart basketball, but who didn't expect that from Kellie Harper? She learned from the best: Pat Summitt of Tennessee.

South Carolina got off to a nice lead in the game, with junior guard Valerie Nainima leading the way. She was all over the court, hoisting up shots whenever she got a few inches of clearance from her defender. That wasn't often, with the Wolfpack frequently appearing to be sharing a jersey with the Gamecocks. Nainima led all scorers with 27 points, along with 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Junior guard  Samone Kennedy provided the rest of the offensive highlights, scoring 18 points with 3 rebounds and 4 assists (against only 1 turnover.) Kennedy hit the 3-pointer, with under a minute in the game, that provided enough margin to assure the win for the Gamecocks. It was a total team effort, though. Freshman center Kelsey Bone had a relatively quiet game, but still was only a rebound away from another double-double, with 10 points and 9 rebounds, as well as a blocked shot and 3 steals in only 27 minutes of playing time.

Nikitta Gartrell led the Wolfpack with 23 points, while Bonae Holston had 10 points and  a game-leading 10 rebounds. Tia Bell led both teams with 6 blocked shots.

It's hard to finish without some mention of the game officials, as they seemed to be trying especially hard to get into the box score in some way. Lawson Newton, Eric Brewton and Billy Smith had the arena in an uproar, on occasion. Both Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley and NC State's Harper had numerous differences of opinions on a variety of calls and the crowd booed one call for nearly the duration of a full time-out. Again, it has to be said that nobody seems to be alleging any kind of favoritism, just a lot of inconsistency and some terrible calls. On at least 2 occasions, the team seemed to anticipate a call and blow the whistle before the play was even finished. On one call under the Gamecocks basket, Smith clearly pointed at a Wolfpack player and flashed her jersey number--yet, within seconds, the teams were walking to the NC State end of the floor for that same player to SHOOT foul shots. Never did figure out what that was about.  Probably never will.

It was a great outing for the Gamecocks, who were challenged in every facet of the game (the Wolfpack outshot the USC team from the floor and the foul line) and pushed, hard--but maintained their poise and played with tremendous confidence to come away with a hard-fought win.

The next test is another Atlantic Coast Conference foe, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. That game is Thursday night with tipoff scheduled for 7 pm at the Colonial Life Arena.

 

 

 

PS.  Junior guard Courtney Newton suffered an injury to her right knee in practice this week. She has surgery scheduled and will be out for the season. Again.