All Good Things Must Come to an End: South Carolina Snaps Vanderbilt's 20-Game Win Streak
They say all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for Vanderbilt women’s basketball, their program record 20 game winning streak to begin the season would be emphatically halted by South Carolina with a 103-74 loss in Columbia.
In Vandy’s defense, I’m not sure anyone could have beaten the Gamecocks on this day. South Carolina was clearly motivated and playing their “A” game coming off an overtime loss at Oklahoma Thursday.
The Gamecocks overwhelmed Vandy with their superior athleticism right from the start. The Commodores turned it over 8 times in the first quarter leading to 14 points for South Carolina. Vandy found themselves down 33-16 after the first – the most points they’ve given up in a quarter all season.
The Commodores tried to fight their way back into the game. Point guard Aubrey Galvan looked like a freshman for most of the first half against South Carolina’s pressure but banked in a three pointer just before halftime to bring Vandy to within 11, with a 55-44 score at the break.
Vandy managed to cut the lead down to 7 early in the third quarter but missed some key layups which helped fuel a 15-2 Gamecock run to go up 70-50 and effectively end the contest.
The two most disappointing aspects of the game for the Commodores were 20 turnovers which led to 32 points for South Carolina, to go along with uncharacteristically poor defense by Vandy.
“Our defense, was bad today, awful,” coach Shea Ralph said after the game. “We scored 74 points. We can’t just give people the ball, but we were still able to score. They didn’t hold us scoreless. We just couldn’t defend them.”
To Ralph’s point, the Gamecocks shot a blistering 62% from the field, 59% from three, and 93% from the line. For perspective, South Carolina came into the game shooting 46% from the field, 29% from three, and 69% from the line in conference games.
Offensively, the Commodores shot reasonably well for the game – hitting 46% from the field and 48% from three. They also hung with South Carolina on the boards, losing the rebounding battle with a respectable 32-26 margin.
Mikayla Blakes had a game high 23 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists but struggled to shoot in the second half finishing the game just 9-24.
Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda was the only other Commodore in double figures with 13 points.
Vandy will look to get off the mat and start a new winning streak Thursday when they travel to Oxford Thursday to take on top 20 Ole Miss.
“I think we can learn a ton from a game like this. There’s a lot that we can take. It was an incredible environment. Credit to South Carolina, because I thought they played really well, maybe the best they played all season.” Ralph said. “Also, this doesn’t negate the fact that we’ve been really good up to this point. There are all kinds of things that we can’t control that are happening right now, but the most important part to me is how we respond to it, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
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