There was one bright spot in South Carolina's win over Charleston Southern, and that was the play of freshman Joyce Edwards. The young forward had a career-high 20 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes on the court.
The Gamecocks walked away with an 82-46 win over the Buccaneers, but this way was way closer than it should have been at times. South Carolina was actually trailing 15-11 after the first quarter, and it was evident head coach Dawn Staley was not pleased with her team.
The second quarter was where the Gamecocks took the lead back and didn't relinquish it, but they went into halftime with only a 34-26 lead. Staley chose to play a lot of her bench players again as she did against USF earlier this week. Certain starters saw limited minutes like Chloe Kitts who only played for eight minutes and Bree Hall who saw the court for 13 minutes.
Edwards, Ashlyn Watkins, and Maddy McDaniel were the only bench players to play over 20 minutes. Edwards was also the only Gamecock to score in double digits, while Watkins led the team with eight rebounds and three blocks.
This game was set to be played at 7:00 p.m. but was moved to Noon in order to give the players a head start on their Christmas break, but maybe that wasn't the brightest idea. When the Gamecocks got behind in the first quarter, it was because they went over seven minutes between scoring their first and second basket.
Staley could have completely gone off on her team at halftime but instead chose a different route and stayed level calm, cool, and collected.
"I said a lot, but I’m not going to blow my top,” Staley said in her postgame press conference. “I understand where they are in this type of game, I’m not making excuses for them."
The second half was truly a tale of two halves as the Gamecocks finally woke up and went on runs of 10-0 and 8-0 in the third quarter. South Carolina was able to truly take control of the game and put the type of space between them and Charleston Southern that probably should have been there in the first half.
Maybe an earlier game put the team in a different headspace, but they knew they needed to get back into it in the second half.
"I feel like all of our minds were on break, to be honest, but we understood when came out after halftime we had to lock in,” Edwards said after the game. “The game shouldn’t have been that close."
The bench has been getting a lot of time on the court and accounted for 50 points in this matchup, which could prove to be a big help later in the season. If South Carolina were to lose any players, Staley knows she can go to her bench and feel confident with them in the game.
The Gamecocks will play their final non-conference game after the Christmas holiday when they take on Wofford on December 29 at 2:00 p.m. EST in Colonial Life Arena.