Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball (19-9, 6-8 SEC) returned to Memorial Gymnasium to host No. 6 South Carolina (25-3, 13-1 SEC) three days after falling to No. 16 Oklahoma on the road.
The game opened with senior night celebrations to honor the team’s five seniors: Leilani Kapinus, Jane “Juice” Nwaba, Jordyn Oliver, Iyana Moore and Sacha Washington. Moore and Washington still have one more year of NCAA eligibility due to injuries, so they can return to the Commodores’ squad next year if they choose.
The Black and Gold failed to keep up with their east-coast rivals as the Gamecocks jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, winning 82-54.
“I don’t think either of us played great today, but it’s disappointing not to take advantage of not their best game on our home court,” head coach Shea Ralph said. “At the same time, it’s senior night. I thought there were some bright spots today from some of our guys that are graduating.”
First quarter
The ‘Dores opted for a senior-day starting five, with Kapinus, Nwaba, Oliver and Moore getting the start along with sophomore Khamil Pierre to round out the lineup. The contest opened with three empty possessions, with Te-Hina Pao-Pao eventually scoring the first two South Carolina buckets of the game on back-to-back possessions. Mikayla Blakes then splashed in a triple for Vanderbilt’s first bucket after a hustle play from Pierre to keep the ball in play. Blakes then picked up two quick personal fouls and had to be subbed out of the game.
Second quarter
At the end of the first quarter, the Gamecocks led 24-11. Vanderbilt opened the second quarter with an Oliver short jumper off the assist from Blakes. After South Carolina failed to convert three straight offensive rebounds, Pierre drove the other way and drew a foul. She went one-for-two from the free throw line.
The Commodores initially struggled to get any consistent offense going — Pierre and Blakes missed back-to-back layups before Pierre finally got one to drop. A Blakes 3-pointer triggered a momentum shift, and the Commodores started to find an offensive groove as the quarter progressed. Foul calls were abundant, and South Carolina did not score a field goal in the last 2 minutes and 36 seconds of the quarter. Vanderbilt outscored South Carolina by three in the second quarter, but South Carolina maintained a 10-point lead going into the half.
The Commodores struggled with the Gamecocks’ stifling defense through the first half. South Carolina’s size and athleticism allowed them to get in passing lanes, break up Vanderbilt’s transition offense and pick the pocket of our guards, which led to easy fast breaks the other way. The Gamecocks’ defense also sped up our guards, causing poor passes and uncharacteristic turnovers. The Commodores had eight turnovers in the first half, and the Gamecocks scored six points off of them. South Carolina had eight turnovers as well, but many of them were dead-ball turnovers, so it did not provide Vanderbilt with many transition opportunities.
“There were a lot of cases of [South Carolina] just rebounding and running,” Ralph said. “Turnovers — just even in the open court, getting picked for a layup — can’t happen at this level. [We] have got to be better than that. That’s a lack of focus, and we just have to be a little bit more disciplined.”
Third quarter
Pierre opened the second half with a back-to-back buckets, pulling Vanderbilt within six. The Commodores then entered a 7-minute drought, going 0-for-12 from the floor over that stretch. South Carolina extended its lead to 19 during that time. Blakes broke up that drought with an offensive rebound and putback, but it didn’t do much as South Carolina outscored Vanderbilt 21-12 in the third quarter.
Fourth quarter
Oliver opened the fourth quarter with a hook shot after a Kapinus offensive rebound. Pao-Pao then hit a 3-pointer, which was followed by six quick South Carolina points off of two Vanderbilt turnovers. Vanderbilt continued to struggle offensively, but Aiyana Mitchell provided a spark off the bench with a 9-point contribution.
South Carolina’s Bree Hall had the defensive assignment on Blakes — Hall is known for guarding the other team’s best player. As a 6’0 guard, Hall outsized Blakes and Blakes struggled to shoot over her length. The first-year had multiple shots blocked or altered throughout the contest. When Hall wasn’t defending her on the ball, South Carolina’s bigs hedged out on screens and consistently doubled Blakes, allowing her limited space to work with. She finished with 19 points on 5-15 shooting.
“She’s special. To come into our league and done what she’s done, she’s special. We tried to make her as inefficient as possible,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said about Blakes. “I thought we made her defend, and that’s part of the process of someone who scores a whole lot of points. We have to make them guard.”
What decided this game was rebounding, bench points and points off turnovers. The Commodores got outrebounded 47-35 and South Carolina grabbed 20 offensive rebounds in this contest. The Gamecocks also had 48 points in the paint compared to Vanderbilt’s 16, and the South Carolina bench contributed 56 as opposed to 30 from the Vanderbilt bench. The Gamecocks also scored 23 points off turnovers while Vanderbilt only scored 3. Vanderbilt had zero fast break points in this contest.
“With this game, even at our worst, we were still there,” Ralph said. “A large portion of the first half, into the second half, the third quarter — we were right there even playing one of our worst games of the year. You kind of have to look at it that way and then ask, ‘What was our issue?’ Let’s confront that, get rid of it, fix it and let’s move on.”
Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball will next host Texas A&M in Memorial Gymnasium on Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. CST. This game will also be a Black History Month celebration.
