The Guru Report II - National: No. 1 South Carolina Handles No. 3 LSU and Remains Last Unbeaten

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

On Sunday afternoon South Carolina coach Dawn Staley took the bench in her Gamecocks’ Colonial Life Arena in Columbia for the battle of the unbeatens with LSU wearing a Randall Cunningham jersey supporting her NFL Philly hometown Eagles who at the time were a few hours away from their Super Bowl date with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Unfortunately she could not control their fate several hours later resulting in a narrow loss. 

But that was the only damper on a day when the reigning NCAA champions in their 18,000-seat sellout their Southeastern Conference matchup with the Tigers asserted their dominance for all to see in an 88-64 victory.

‘It’s South Carolina, in my opinion, and it’s everybody else,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said afterwards.

The Gamecocks (25-0, 12-0 Southeastern Conference) soared to an 18-2 lead, then several times got narrowed to within five before early in the third period went for the finishing touch with the Tigers (23-1, 11-1) in their fumes the rest of the way.

“They have things that we don’t have and a lot of teams in the country don’t have who aspire to be there one day,” said Mulkey, sounding like the era when Geno Auriemma would quip of UConn, “We have Diana Taurasi and no one else does.”

But Mulkey has been there first hand in the Brittney Griner era when she coached Baylor, which stayed in the mix until a drop off after she recently returned to her home state to do a quick rebuild of LSU’S prominence.

Aliyah Boston, the consensus national player of last season and projected No. 1 pick in April’s WNBA draft, had 14 points and nine rebounds for Staley’s bunch while Syracuse transfer of last season Kamilla Cardoso had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and Zia Cooke scored 17.

The Gamecocks stymied Maryland transfer Angel Reese, whose 16 points came off 5-of-16 shooting while she also pulled down just four rebounds, her first game with her board work lacking double figures.

Dating to the NCAA run after an upset loss to Kentucky in the SEC championship, South Carolina has won 31 straight games.

Left before Selection Sunday is a regular season meeting with Tennessee, then possible rematches with the Lady Vols and LSU in the SEC tournament that will also be in the same arena in Greenville, S.C., as one of the two sites - the other in Seattle — in the revamped NCAA Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds.

While not denying the talent, LSU has been criticized for a weak schedule which has not been helped by a down year in the conference. 

Late last week, when the NCAA committee did its first Top 16 reveal, UConn was given preference over LSU for the last No. 1 seed despite the Huskies’ upset loss at Marquette the previous night.

Sunday was LSU’s chance to make a case to jump up with a win over the expected No. 1 overall seed.

With the loss unless they get another chance at South Carolina, there won’t be much opportunity.

Ranking Upsets

Though still safely controlling the American Athletic Conference, at the end week of its first Associated Press women’s poll appearance of the season, No. 24 South Florida was edged at home in Tampa 71-69 by Houston on the strength of Laila Blair’s six shots from deep and career high 30 points.

The setbackp ended an overall 12-0 win streak, the same run in home games, and prevented a 12-0 first-ever start in the conference.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia put No. 22 North  Carolina State in danger of expulsion with a 71-59 win at home in the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville as Taylor Valladay had 22 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. 

The Cavaliers had lost seven straight.

The Wolfpack’s Jada Boyd also scored 22.

Nationally Notable

No. 6 Stanford completed a desert sweep in the PAC-12 winning 96-64 at Arizona State in y]ÿjjjjjj as reserve Agnes Emma-Nnopu scored 17 points and Tara VanDerveer extended her Women’s Division I record to 1,181 victories.

No. 8 Maryland at home in College Park rallied to beat Illinois 82-71 as Diamond Miller scored 31 points. Abby Meyers had 14 if her 18 points in the thurd period.

No. 7 Utah kept pace with Stanford at the top of the Pac-12 by beating Washington State 73-59 as Alissa Pili had 15 points while Gianni Kneepkens had 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Looking Ahead

No. 2 Indiana is at No. 13 Ohio State in the Big Ten Monday night st 7 p.m. on the B1G in Columbus while No. 20 Texas is at No. 21 Iowa State in Ames at the same time in a potential preview of the Big 12 championship.

DePaul is at Seton Hall at 7 p.m. Monday in the Big East in a makeup and then the Pirates travel to Chicago to play the Blue Demons Wednesday night. 

UMass is at Rhode Island Thursday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ playing the top two in the Atlantic Ten.

And that’s the national report.