GREENVILLE, N.C. — The top-ranked South Carolina women took care of the basketball to accomplish one of Dawn Staley’s primary goals before jumping into Southeastern Conference play.
As for hitting free throws, well, that’s another issue.
Kamilla Cardoso had 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Gamecocks blew Saturday’s game open in the second quarter to beat East Carolina 73-36, a win that came despite South Carolina missing 16 free throws.
The Gamecocks (12-0) entered Saturday ranked 278th among Division I teams in free-throw percentage (.656) and made 18 of 34 in this one.
“I think it’s mental, I think when you start pointing things out like free-throw shooting, it seems to get worse,” Staley said.
She said the team worked in recent practices on free throws, including when abruptly stopping drills to have players shoot while winded.
“We weren’t good in those drills, so it was a direct reflection of today,” Staley said.
Still, the defense overpowered the Pirates (7-4) and locked up ECU top scorer Danae McNeal early. Once shots started falling, South Carolina’s lead steadily grew against a team struggling to find much space to operate.
South Carolina missed 15 of its first 20 shots before Te-Hina Paopao knocked down her second 3-pointer of the second quarter, the start of a game-deciding 15-1 run. ECU went four minutes without a basket as the Gamecocks stretched the lead to 34-13 on Sania Feagin’s runout layup.
South Carolina finished with 11 turnovers against a team forcing a national-high 28.2 turnovers per game.
“There’s always things to work on,” Paopao said. “The main thing this game was to take care of the ball. I thought we did pretty well with that.”
McNeal, averaging 19.5 points, missed her first eight shots while seeing constant attention from multiple defenders before finishing with five points on 2-for-16 shooting. Amiya Joyner scored 10 points to lead ECU, which lost point guard Micah Dennis to first-quarter knee injury — coming on the heels of starting guard Synia Johnson suffering a broken leg against Charleston Southern on Dec. 21.
ECU shot 19% and had as many turnovers as made baskets (13).
“I don’t care if they are the No. 1 team in the country — we come out here and we play as hard as we can for 40 freaking minutes,” ECU coach Kim McNeill said. “We did it for 20, we didn’t do it for 40 and the game is a 40-minute game.”
BIG PICTURE
South Carolina: The Gamecocks have hit 12-0 for the third consecutive season and the staples were there in this one. They dominated the glass (58-42) while the defensive effort included eight blocked shots.
ECU: The Pirates entered the season with five returning starters from a 23-win team that earned the program’s third NCAA Tournament bid. But they lost their 21st straight game to a ranked opponent dating to February 2015, falling to 0-11 against No. 1-ranked teams and 1-58 against those in the top 10.
UP NEXT
South Carolina: The Gamecocks open SEC play at Florida on Thursday.
ECU: The Pirates open American Athletic Conference play by hosting UTSA on Tuesday.