No. 6 South Carolina (26-3, 14-1 SEC) ran away with a win in their final SEC road test of the season Thursday night.
The Gamecocks secured a 75-59 victory over Ole Miss, extending their win streak over the Rebels to 20 games.
South Carolina was carried to the win by veteran forwards Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin.
Career nights for Kitts and Feagin
Feagin and Kitts stepped up in a big way for the Gamecocks on Thursday.
Kitts finished with a triple-double in the game — 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. Those assists and steals (4) were both career-highs. Kitts’ triple-double was the ninth in program history, and she’s the first to do it since Aliyah Boston in 2021.
It was the hard way,” Staley said of Kitts’ performance in a postgame interview on ESPN. “It was really the hard way. It was playmaking. It was determination. It was will. It was Chloe Kitts. Chloe Kitts has this in her.”
Feagin notched a career-high 22 points while also tallying six rebounds and five blocks.
She didn’t need much time to get things going on the stat sheet. Feagin tied her previous career high after scoring 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting in the first half.
“I thought Feagin just did her job,” Staley said. “Feagin got offensive rebounds. Feagin got dumps from our post players and our guards giving her the ball. She made layups. … When you can make layups you can up your average six to eight points just by doing that. And I thought Feagin did a great job of just being very, very efficient and being in the right place at the right time a lot tonight.”
Where’s the bench?
South Carolina’s bench production was uncharacteristically limited Thursday.
The reserves averaged 56 points last week, more than its two opponents averaged as a team. For the season, South Carolina’s bench has averaged 42.6 points a game.
South Carolina’s bench scored 24 points Thursday. The bench didn’t surpass double-digit points until late in the third quarter.
Joyce Edwards and MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina’s leading scorers who both come off the bench, had a minimal impact in the scoring column. Edwards didn’t score her first basket until late in the third quarter. She finished with 10 points and Fulwiley had nine.
Selection committee’s Top 16 out the window
Eleven days ago, the NCAA Tournament selection committee released its first sneak peek at how it ranks ahead of March Madness.
South Carolina was ranked No. 2 in the committee’s Top 16 at the time, slotting them as a No. 1 seed in the Birmingham 2 region. Only a few hours later, those rankings were shaken up when the Gamecocks lost by 29 points to UConn at home.
The same thing happened Thursday night — just not to South Carolina.
Notre Dame was a No. 1 seed in the Birmingham 4 region but proceeded to lose to Florida State 86-81 a few hours later.
South Carolina was the No. 2 seed in the same region, so a win for the Gamecocks over Ole Miss, combined with a loss for the Fighting Irish, means Dawn Staley’s squad could find themselves back on track for a No. 1 seed.
