GREENVILLE, S.C. — South Carolina has been so dominant in the SEC tournament that it seemed somewhat shocking the Gamecocks trailed LSU at the break on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals. After all, it had been seven years since the Gamecocks trailed at halftime in an SEC tournament game.
Coach Dawn Staley looked around the room and felt good. South Carolina was down only four; she thought her team deserved to be down 10 or 12 points given the way it played. So the Gamecocks rallied and showed why they have been so dominant for so long in conference play — looking nonplussed as the second half resumed, taking control with a career-high 22 points from senior Raven Johnson and another 19 points from Ta’Niya Latson.
In the end, South Carolina won 83-77, advancing to its seventh straight SEC championship game final — extending the longest streak by any school in conference history. South Carolina will attempt to win its fourth straight SEC title Sunday. That its game against the Tigers brought some adversity after a blowout win over Kentucky in the quarterfinals?
“I thought our kids were really resilient,” Staley said. “Do I want the game to be played that tightly and exhausting our players on semifinals night? No. But you have to do what you have to do to win and advance, and our players did that.”
LSU had its opportunities but failed to capitalize — particularly in the second half. To open the third quarter, LSU had no patience with its offensive game, often launching wild shots that missed — going 1-of-9 in the first five minutes of the quarter — allowing South Carolina to take control of the game.
Down five with 45 seconds remaining in the game, LSU had two fouls to give. The intention on the inbounds pass after a timeout was to trap and steal, and if that was not there, to foul. But LSU did neither and 23 seconds ran off the clock before South Carolina called timeout, the game essentially secure.
Coach Kim Mulkey kept her team in the locker room following the game to go over that late-game situation as the Tigers gear up for the NCAA tournament. Mulkey said after the game her team is “so close” but often does not do the little things that separate good teams from elite teams. Mulkey is now 0-7 against South Carolina since arriving at LSU five years ago.
“We just, I don’t want to say, lose our composure, but we just don’t do it,” Mulkey said. “So, that’s why you stay in the locker room — to teach. You guys are on that floor. Tell me why we didn’t do that. Just teaching moments on a big, big stage like this.”
Staley has had more than her share of those moments with Johnson, who has elevated her game in her final season. The knock on Johnson headed into this year was that she did not score enough to complement the rest of her game. So she worked this offseason to not only become a better scorer but also to take advantage of the scoring opportunities in front of her.
Against LSU on Saturday, Johnson went 9-of-14 from the floor, with a career-high 22 points while tying her career high with four 3-pointers. The two highest-scoring games in her 147-game career have both come against LSU this season. She had 19 points in the regular-season win.
Johnson said her mindset was to do “whatever it takes. I’m just thinking about winning.” Now, South Carolina is back in the SEC championship game.
“When I came to the SEC 18 years ago, we came here for just this, to play against the best, to coach against the best, to try to outfox the other coaches down the sideline,” Staley said. “I didn’t think it was going to be this hard, because it’s incredibly hard, not for the faint at heart, but to do it in the fashion that we’ve done it, you’ve got to give it up to our players.”
