South Carolina Basketball: 6 thumbs up from a historic national championship win
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Basketball vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
Thumbs Up 5: Owning the Boards
The excellence of South Carolina's post players has already been mentioned in this article, but reiterating how good they were is appropriate. Starting bigs Kamilla Cardoso and Chloe Kitts combined for 27 rebounds, and bench players Ashlyn Watkins and Sania Feagin brought down 9 more.
However, the USC guards got involved on the glass, as well.
Raven Johnson crashed inside for 5 rebounds, MiLaysia Fulwiley added 4 high-energy boards, and Tessa Johnson also pulled down 4 rebounds. All three of those guards performed better in the rebounding battle than Iowa's two bigs Hannah Stuelke and Addison O'Grady.
Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin were the only Hawkeyes with more than 3 rebounds, while the Gamecocks had seven players to secure at least 4.
The final rebounding tally saw the Gamecocks finish with 51 rebounds compared to the Hawkeyes' 29. Even when the offense missed, South Carolina rebounded very well. On the 40 USC shots that wound up in a rebound, Carolina recovered 18 of them, good for a ridiculous 45% offensive rebound rate. With those offensive rebounds, Dawn Staley's squad scored 30 points in 2nd chance opportunities.