The 63-49 win over the Auburn Tigers at Colonial Life Arena gave the Gamecocks as many Southeastern Conference victories as they were able to manage all last season. The way they are currently playing--and especially if they continue to improve--they should easily surpass last season's total. For heaven's sake, after this well-played game, fans in the stands were actually speculating about the Gamecocks' chances in both the SEC Tournament and (gasp!) the NCAA Tournament. That's extremely optimistic talk, but the play of the Carolina team this afternoon gave reason for optimism.

The Gamecocks never trailed, though the score was close for quite some time, at least in the first half. Perhaps the backbreaker (at least mentally) was the last 34 seconds of the first half, when Auburn trailed by only 6 and got the ball and the chance to take the last shot--which they missed, was rebounded by (5-2) Samone Kennedy and Valerie Nainima hit a 3 with only 4 seconds left on the clock. Need I say, the crowd went wild?

Auburn never was solidly in the game, after that. At 16:55 of the second half, Kelsey Bone hit a jumper to give the Gamecocks a 10-point lead and the lead was never less, afterwards. It grew as big as 22 points, when towards the end of the game, Auburn switched to a desperation offense with Alli Smalley handling the ball and setting herself up for shots. It didn't work very well. By that time, the rebounding for Auburn had almost disappeared and the shots just weren't falling when they needed to.

Freshman center Kelsey Bone again missed a double-double by one rebound; she had 15 points and 9 rebounds for the game. The Carolina team was led by junior guard Valerie Nainima's shooting for 20 points and 4 assists. Junior forward Charenee Stephens contributed 8 rebounds and much of her on-court time defending KeKe Carrier, at least 6 inches taller than Stephens, and freshman guard Ieasia Walker contributed 7 rebounds and inspired play on both ends of the court. Freshman forward Ashley Bruner saw only 13 minutes of playing time and scored 6 points, but the most notable thing about her play was that she was completely in the thick of the action and seemed to be having an awful lot of fun. So many players had on a serious game face, but Bruner was smiling through it all. It was very nice to see; it seems like quite a while since the USC team had much fun on-court. And the fans rather enjoyed it, too.

Auburn was led by KeKe Carrier, with 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Alli Smalley with 12 points. Jordan Greenleaf added 8 points and 8 rebounds for the cause. Despite the final total, Smalley was held in check by the Gamecocks for most of the game. She had only 2 points before she took over the ballhandling chores in the catch-up offense. Auburn tried quite a few things to get back into the game, including a quick trapping press on the USC guards, who handled it very well and really never even appeared to be rattled.

The rematch is only 2 1/2 weeks away, with Auburn having the home-court advantage for the February 4 game.

The Gamecocks' next game is a rematch against the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge. That game is set for Thursday, January 21 and the tipoff will be at 7 pm CST (8 pm in Columbia.)