South Carolina routs rival Clemson ahead of 1-vs-2 showdown with Stanford

All-time bragging rights in the women’s basketball Palmetto Series finally belong to the Gamecocks.

No. 1 South Carolina defeated Clemson 85-31 Thursday night at Littlejohn Coliseum to improve to 3-0 on the season. The win gives USC a 34-33 advantage in the all-time series over the rival Tigers.

The Tigers made it interesting early, even taking the first lead of the game with a 3-pointer. They played trapping defense to force turnovers on the Gamecock offense.

South Carolina eventually found its groove, taking advantage of the height differential to get points inside.

Freshman forward Ashlyn Watkins put the exclamation point on the win by throwing down the first dunk of her career.

“I’ve seen her do it a million times, but never on this level,” head coach Dawn Staley said.

Zia Cooke led the team in scoring with 15 points. Aliyah Boston chipped in 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.

The Gamecocks will now travel to face No. 2 Stanford on Sunday.

USC PUSHING THE PACE

South Carolina scored 80 or more points for the third straight game, something it didn’t do at any point last year. One of those games from this season came against No. 19 Maryland on the road.

Staley has said she’s been pleased with the pace that South Carolina has played at offensively and that it was a point of emphasis headed into the season.

“We’re trying to play up tempo,” Staley said on Wednesday. “We’re trying to convert in transition a little bit more to alleviate some of the sag and zone concepts that people are playing against us.”

The Gamecocks were 7-of-12 Thursday from 3-point range in the game. The team also managed to get out in the open court, scoring 35 points off Clemson turnovers.

TOO MANY GIVEAWAYS

The Gamecocks struggled with ball control against the Tigers, finishing with 20 turnovers.

The team had three offensive fouls in the first half that contributed to nine turnovers in the period. Most of the turnovers came from errant passes.

“I thought at times we didn’t make the right basketball decision,” Staley said. “Sometimes we forced things too much, sometimes we just charged into people. Just bad basketball decisions that Clemson forced us to make.”

South Carolina entered the game averaging 14.5 turnovers per game.

Clemson employed a full-court trap early on, something that head coach Amanda Butler likes to use in games.. The Tigers played one-on-one defense against USC from the get-go and didn’t resort to zones.

“They did a good job of speeding us up,” Cooke said.

LINEUP CHANGE AT POINT GUARD

Kierra Fletcher started at point guard instead of Raven Johnson.

Both made their first shot attempts of the game in the first quarter, as Fletcher earned a driving layup and Johnson made good on a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer.

Staley said after the win against Maryland that she liked the chemistry that Johnson shares with reserve forward Kamilla Cardoso. The two played AAU basketball together, which helps give them a solid connection on the court.

“I’ve seen that chemistry the times that I recruited both of them,” Staley said.

Johnson led the team in assists with five Thursday.

The team is using ball-handlers by committee, with Cooke and Laeticia Amihere bringing it up and directing the offense on occasion. Freshman guard Talaysia Cooper got some minutes for South Carolina as well on Thursday.

Next 4 USC WBB games

• Sunday: at Stanford, 3 p.m. (ABC)

• Tuesday: at Cal Poly, 8 p.m.

• Nov. 27: vs. Hampton, noon (SEC Network Plus)

• Nov. 29: vs. UCLA, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)