South Carolina women's basketball: "We've got to speed them up"
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Usually, coaches and players will try to obscure their game plan. Not this weekend. South Carolina wants to run as much as possible against Oregon State and doesn’t care who knows it.
“We can beat them in transition,” Chloe Kitts said. “I feel like they are not as fast as we are. Beating them in transition is something we will be able to do.”
South Carolina is third in the nation in scoring at 86.1 points. Oregon State averages nearly 15 points less, 71.3, which is 76th in the nation.
The Beavers’ other offensive numbers are much better. They shoot over 46% and almost 36% from three. They average 17.7 assists and make just under eighth threes per game. The Beavers just go about their offense patiently.
“They slow the game down at a pace that if you don’t stay engaged, they’re going to make you pay,” Dawn Staley said. “They’re pretty stingy when it comes to defending. You have to be really disciplined. You’ve got to out-discipline them on both sides of the basketball to win this game. For the most part in playing them, I thought we did a pretty good job with disrupting, and we’re going to have to do a really good job disrupting, as well.”
That message has been shared by Te-Hina Paopao, who played Oregon State seven times while at Oregon. She and the Ducks went 3-4.
“I just told them we’ve got to lock in on defense tomorrow, and it’s going to be a slow, methodical game,” Paopao said. “At the same time, we’ve got to play our game and just speed them up because they’re going to play at their pace, and we’ve just got to speed them up.”
Notre Dame gave Oregon State fits with its zone pressure and forced 26 turnovers. South Carolina doesn’t have a zone press in its arsenal (that we’ve seen – the Gamecocks unveiled a full-court press against North Carolina so they could have more up their sleeve), or a Hannah Hidalgo, who averages 4.6 steals per game.
But South Carolina does have MiLaysia Fulwiley and Raven Johnson, who tormented Deja Kelly in the second round and average a combined 3.9 steals.
Fulwiley is also coming off a bad game (“She was due,” Staley said). A mad Fulwiley is a dangerous thing for opponents, and there are few players, if any, in the country who are faster than Fulwiley.
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And yet, South Carolina’s biggest weapon for speeding up the pace of the game is its frontcourt. One of the reasons Oregon State slows down the game is to create more opportunities for post Raegan Beers. South Carolina’s athletic forwards all run well and excel in the open court.
“Rim-running is always a part of the game plan,” post Kamilla Cardoso said. “It doesn’t matter who we play we try to rim-run and get some easy buckets.
Oregon State goes a solid eight players deep, while South Carolina plays nine players. There isn’t a big difference in depth, but there is a difference in the type of players.
“We’re just a faster team,” Kitts said. “We’re going to try to beat them up the court, pressure them on offense, and try to get some steals that lead to transition.”
