The South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team evened their record at the Hawk Classic by exploding on offense and running away from the Brown Bears 73-46 on Tuesday afternoon.

The game was a close one until near the end of the first half, when the Gamecocks suddenly cranked up the intensity and went on a scoring run that the Bears would not answer until well into the start of the second half of the game. The Gamecocks went into halftime with a 16-point lead and were pretty much able to cruise through the second half of the game.

Though it was a slow start for both teams, the Gamecocks ended up dominating the Bears in nearly every aspect of the game, as is reflected in the final score. Junior guard Valerie Nainima again led the offensive charge, leading all scorers with 17 points, closely followed by sophomore forward Charenee Stephens with 15. Stephens also grabbed 8 rebounds for the game, though the rebounding leader was freshman center Kelsey Bone, who had 12 rebounds and 7 points.

The Bears were led by Lindsay Nickel with 11 points and Sarah Delk with 10 points. Hannah Passafuime added 8 points and led the team in rebounding with 6.

The Gamecocks will return to the friendly confines of the Colonial Life Arena for their SEC opener against the not-so-friendly LSU Tigers on Sunday, January 3. Please check local newspapers or the USC website for the time; in the original season schedule, it says the game is at 3 pm, but the radio announcers for the Brown game mentioned at least twice that it would start at 6 pm.