COLONIAL LIFE ARENA: Texas wanted to use its size to beat USC inside in Sunday’s top five matchup at the Colonial Life Arena. All the Longhorns did was repeatedly beat themselves with missed layups (24 by an unofficial count from the shot chart). The Gamecocks had a more balanced outside-inside attack and ran away to a 67-50 win before a sold out crowd.
Over and over again Texas fed their big players in the paint, in particular 6-6 Kyla Oldacre and 6-1 Madison Booker, and they repeatedly missed shots near the basket, a big reason the Longhorns shot 28% from the game. They were a combined 8-30 from the floor.
Oldacre had 12 offensive rebounds by herself and had numerous opportunities inside. They were contested shots, however, as the Gamecocks used their length inside to force many of those misses.
Texas had 20 offensive rebounds but only converted those into 10 points. Because of the rebounding advantage, they had 28 more field goal attempts than USC. But the Gamecocks made the most of their opportunities and shot 51% from the floor.
Early on you could tell the Longhorns were brick masons in the paint. They were 4-26 from the floor in the first quarter as the Gamecocks, who only had eight field goal attempts, led 18-9.
USC won the second quarter 21-13 as they made 10-13 shots from the floor to build a comfortable 39-22 lead. Texas never got closer than 13 points in the second half.
Balanced scoring was the key for USC with seven players with at least seven points. Te-Hina Paopao and Chloe Kitts had 11 points each to lead the scoring. Paopao had two of the Gamecocks three three-pointers.
With their 11th straight win on the season, the Gamecocks increased their home winning streak to 67 games. It was their 51st straight SEC win and their 41st straight SEC win at home. And it was their 14th straight win at home over a ranked team.
The Gamecocks are now 16-1 overall and 4-0 in the SEC and will play at Alabama Thursday night.
Final Stats
