South Carolina Basketball: 3 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down from road win over Auburn

South Carolina Basketball vs. Auburn Tigers
Thumbs Down 1: Shooting

The Gamecocks were not very good on offense against Auburn. The 3rd-worst shooting performance (and 2nd-worst 3-point shooting performance) of the season for the Gamecocks also came with the team's 5th-most turnovers this year. 5 Gamecocks finished with multiple turnovers, and four of Carolina's five guards (all of them other than MiLaysia Fulwiley) combined to shoot 7-29 from the field.

Kamilla Cardoso and MiLaysia Fulwiley finished with decent efficiency numbers, but they both started slowly as the team shot 28.7% from the floor in the 1st half. The poor outside shooting numbers from last year creeped into the gym on Thursday, but the 0-8 start from the perimeter gave way to 4-8 shooting in the 2nd half to salvage things a bit.

Even still, the Gamecocks beat a good Auburn team by 22 points on the road.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Auburn Tigers
Thumbs Down 2: Assist-Turnover Ratio

Turnovers have been a problem for the Gamecocks all season, but in most games, Carolina helped make up for it with big assist totals. That was not the case on Thursday.

With just 11 total assists for the game, the Gamecocks got 9 dimes from their top-2 assist players in Raven Johnson and Te-Hina Paopao, but only 2 assists came from the entire rest of the roster. Some of the problems came from missed shots, but the ball movement and passing decisions were not as good as they should be. Former point guard Dawn Staley won't have many good things to do say about that in film sessions this week.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Auburn Tigers
Thumbs Down 3: Handling Honesty Scott-Grayson

Dawn Staley wasn't pleased with her team's defense on Auburn guard Honesty Scott-Grayson as she described #23's night by saying she was "cooking us." After just 2 points in the 1st quarter, it didn't seem as if there was anything special coming for the senior guard.

She scored 29 more points the rest of the way, however, and she managed to do so against almost anyone thrown at her. Good defenders like Bree Hall, Te-Hina Paopao, Raven Johnson, and Ashlyn Watkins got put in a blender at times. MiLaysia Fulwiley had the best luck against her, but she still managed to keep Auburn in the game until the 4th quarter got out of hand.