No. 2 South Carolina WBB gets big win over Duke in Las Vegas

No. 2 South Carolina women’s basketball won the first of its two-game slate in the Player Era Championship.

Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks beat a tough Duke team 83-66 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

With the win, South Carolina is now 7-0 on the year while Duke falls to 3-4 with the loss. Both teams will play their final game of the Players Era Championship on Thursday.

Madina Okot led the way for South Carolina with 23 points while two other Gamecocks finished with more than 10 points. Toby Fournier led Duke with 16 points and three other Blue Devils finished with double-digit points.

Duke controls things to start

Duke controlled things early in the game and for a second it looked like it was going to give the No. 2 team in the country a run for its money.

The Blue Devils got off to a hot start after scoring the first bucket of the game. Duke led by as many as eight as the first quarter was winding down. But a run by South Carolina cut Duke’s lead to 15-14 at the end of the period. Taina Mair led Duke with five points and four rebounds in the first quarter.

Duke outshot South Carolina 46.7% to 37.5% in the first quarter. Duke was able to lead for the entirety of the first quarter.

Second quarter makes the difference for Gamecocks

It took South Carolina until the 6:20 mark in the second quarter to earn its first lead of the game. But once the Gamecocks finally grabbed the lead, they never let it go.

South Carolina outscored Duke 26-12 in the second quarter and finished the period on a 13-2 run. USC improved its shooting percentage to 42.3% in the period and limited Duke to 35.7%. The Gamecock defense forced six turnovers in the second quarter Okot was crucial to the momentum change for South Carolina. She recorded nine points and four rebounds in the second quarter.

South Carolina ended up leading by as many 19 points in the game (that came at a point early in the third quarter) but Duke made a run in the third quarter. Duke out-scored South Carolina 24-21 in the third, but the lead the Gamecocks built up in the second quarter helped USC maintain a 10-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Duke was never able to cut the lead to less than eight despite a few strong pushes in the second half.

Post play leads to the win for South Carolina

The play of Okot and Edwards on the glass (and in general, for that matter) made a big difference in the game.

Okot finished with yet another double-double after tallying 23 points and 13 rebounds. Okot has now recorded three-straight double-doubles and five total this season.

Edwards scored 22 points in the game and also tallied six rebounds and assists. That marks the third-straight game she’s scored at least 20 points this season. She’s hit that mark four times this season.

As a team, South Carolina scored 58 points in the paint compared to Duke’s 28. The Gamecocks’ offensive production was almost exclusively from inside the arc, as USC made just one of their 10 attempts from 3-point range.

South Carolina out-rebounded Duke 43 to 35.

Thanksgiving basketball on deck

Both South Carolina and Duke will play their next games Thursday night to wrap up the Players Era Championship.

USC will play No. 4 Texas in the championship game of the event at 8 p.m. Duke will play No. 3 UCLA in the third place game at 10:30 p.m.

Both games will be televised on truTV.

Texas advanced to the championship game by beating UCLA 76-65 on Wednesday afternoon.

South Carolina WBB’s next four games

• Thursday, Nov. 27: vs Texas or UCLA in Players Era Championship in Las Vegas, 8 or 10:30 p.m. (truTV)
• Thursday, Dec. 4: at Louisville, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
• Sunday, Dec. 7: vs NC Central, 12 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Sunday, Dec. 14: vs Penn State, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)