The South Carolina women's basketball team took a big step forward, last night, defeating the high-flying Kentucky Wildcats at the Colonial Life Arena, 79-71.

The game wasn't really as close as the final score might indicate. The Gamecocks continued to suffer a rash of turnovers (18) and shot fairly poorly from the free throw line (58%), letting the Cats stay in the contest longer than they should have. Carolina continues to get socked with travelling calls, when players try to get fancy--when a fundamentally sound move, though not flashy, would be preferable. The positive side is that the hot shooting from the Alabama game has continued (55.4% for the game) which was certainly a necessity, given that USC--largely because of turnovers--got only 56 shots at the basket, while allowing the Cats 65 shots. Happily, the defense was able to slow Kentucky down enough to hold them to 38.5% shooting for the game. That stat was a little surprising since many of the UK shots were high-percentage shots, like backdoor layups. Still, the Gamecocks were able to build their advantage to a 14-point lead with 9:30 left in the game and maintained that lead, more or less, for the rest of the game. The lead was still 14 point with 1:25 to go, at which point the Gamecocks backed off considerably on defense (given the officiating, a necessity) to avoid silly fouls. That strategy resulted in the Cats pulling closer, but they had to EARN their points and burn the clock while doing so. Their counter-strategy was to press the Gamecocks, hard, and foul to send Carolina players to the foul line and get the ball back. A sound strategy for a trailing team, especially with USC's foul shooting and Kentucky's scoring abilities, but the officiating crew had a hard time figuring out that Kentucky was TRYING to foul and ignored all but the most blatant attempts, effectively helping the Gamecocks to kill even more clock between foul shots. Ironic, no?

The officiating crew--June Courteau, the intrepid Eric Brewton and Amy Bonner--was uniformly poor to mediocre. Missed calls, inconsistent calls and a refusal to so much as discuss a disputed call were par for the course. Here's a clue for the crew: when the guards are whining and complaining about the defense and then--suddenly--are easily creating distance from their defender, it's time to look for a pretty common move: she backs into the defender, plants an elbow in the gut and pushes off with the hand and lower arm to create more distance. (It's kind of a basic thing, sort of like the "one arm on the receiver" move that NFL defensive backs are known for--well, except for the fact that NFL officials now look for that move.) Although, if you're going to allow defenders to slap and reach in, at will, it's only fair to allow the offensive players a few "gimmes", too, right?

WRONG! How about at least trying to actually call what you see? How about setting the parameters for the game and sticking to whatever you decide, enforcing it for BOTH teams and treating all the players the same way? After all, a charge is a charge, whether it's a 6-5 center or a 5-2 guard. One will hurt a lot more, but it's the same foul and the same penalty. We did not see that kind of officiating last night--and that's a shame. Shame on the crew and shame on the SEC for letting it continue, game after game and season after season. If they are doing anything to attempt to improve the officiating, it is not obvious.

Anyway, back to the game.

USC freshman center Kelsey Bone led all scorers with 23 points, somehow missing a double-double with only 9 rebounds, also a game-high total. Four other Gamecocks joined her in double figures: junior guard Valerie Nainima had 14 points and 7 assists; sophomore forward Charenee Stephens had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks; junior guard Samone Kennedy had 10 points and freshman guard Ieasia Walker had 10 points and 3 rebounds.

Kentucky had 4 players in double figures: A'dia Mathies had 20 points, 3 blocks and 3 steals; Amber Smith scored 19 points; Victoria Dunlap had 10 points and 6 rebounds; Lydia Watkins had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. A great game on paper, but not enough on Thursday night.

The Gamecocks (9-7, 2-2 SEC) welcome the Auburn Tigers to the Colonial Life Arena on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 pm.