South Carolina women's basketball: Rapid Reaction - Penn State

South Carolina cruised to a 95-45 win over Penn State on Sunday. Here’s what stood out from the game.

– I don’t know what got into Ta’Niya Latson at halftime, but it was a tale of two halves for her personally, and may as well have been for the team as a whole. 

Latson had seven points, four assists, and three steals in the third quarter alone. She finished with 18 points, six rebounds, eight assists, and four steals. 

It’s no secret that Latson has had trouble figuring out her role this season, and she wasn’t alone in having trouble figuring out the Penn State zone in the first half. But it also shouldn’t be a secret that second-half Ta’Niya was the dominant playmaking force South Carolina needs. 

“Halftime was just a reset button for her,” Maddy McDaniel said. “She was able to come out full speed.”

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– South Carolina won by 40, but it probably should have been 50. The Gamecocks shot just 15-28 (53.6%) from the free throw line. That included a 2-6 effort from Joyce Edwards, 1-4 from Maryam Dauda, 1-3 from Maddy McDaniel, 0-2 from Adhel Tac, and 2-4 from Tessa Johnson, who hadn’t missed all season. 

South Carolina entered the game shooting 73.4% as a team. That isn’t great, but it is sixth in the SEC and top 100 in the country, so not bad. But South Carolina has had some late misses against Texas and Louisville, and those misses 

It seems the misses are becoming a mental thing, something Staley has noticed as well.

“We practice them every day. Every single day. There’s not a day that goes by,” Staley said. “It’s becoming a little mental now. We can’t just say it’s going to fix itself. We probably need to practice a little more over here (at Colonial Life Arena).”

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– Defense tends to get overshadowed when you score 95 points, but South Carolina played outstanding on that end of the court despite not having two of its best defenders in Madina Okot and Agot Makeer. 

Penn State came in averaging 82.8 points on 50.4% shooting, including 37.1% from three. South Carolina limited the Lady Lions to 55 points (27.8 below average), 31.5% shooting (18.9 below average), and 5-26 from three (17.9% below normal).

South Carolina also Limited Gracie Merkle, who is 10th in the nation in scoring at 22.3 points, to nine points. 

“We wanted to make sure that she didn’t get any direct passes in to her,” Staley said. “When the ball goes in the air, we didn’t go for the ball, we maintained contact with her and crowded her space.”

South Carolina’s defense has been inconsistent this season, but it was sensational on Sunday.

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