\u201cFifty-two points is not going to win us a lot of games,\u201d USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. \u201cWe\u2019d like to, if we had to win a rock fight, win 52-51, but I know that we\u2019re capable of scoring against any team. We wouldn\u2019t know that if we\u2019re blowing somebody out by 40, right? <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019d rather get it handed to us tonight even if it doesn\u2019t feel good, and understand what we\u2019re capable of doing and getting there eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Carolina guard Ta\u2019Niya Latson<\/a> drove into the paint in the third quarter. As she went up for the layup, she was met by USC guard Kennedy Smith<\/a>, who rose up and swatted the ball so hard into the stands that it knocked the hat off a fan sitting a couple rows deep in the Crypto.com Arena crowd.<\/p>\n That ended up being the highlight of the Trojans\u2019 second half.<\/p>\n USC guard Jazzy Davidson loses the ball while driving to the basket against South Carolina on Saturday night.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n They had been in this situation before. In its previous game at No. 9 North Carolina State, USC<\/a> trailed by 11 with 9:48 left to play before pulling off a comeback victory<\/a>. And on Saturday night, the Trojans found themselves here again: down 10 to South Carolina, the No. 2 team in the country, heading into the final quarter. <\/p>\n But USC\u2019s shortcomings \u2014 and its abysmal night shooting the ball (33% from the floor, 7% from deep) \u2014 were too much to overcome. The Gamecocks bullied their way inside to drop 44 points in the paint on the Trojans.<\/p>\n Smith led USC in scoring with 12 points to go with three assists. Kara Dunn was the only other Trojan in double figures with 10 points and three rebounds. South Carolina had four players in double figures, led by Joyce Edwards<\/a>\u2019 17 points. South Carolina held USC freshman star Jazzy Davidson<\/a> to eight points on four-for-11 shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cThey do have a lot of length, especially in the interior,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cWe talked about the fact that when they collapse, the sprays might be out to shooters. We had a rough time shooting the ball, which obviously let it stay collapsed more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gamecocks (4-0) came out sloppy with six first-half turnovers and shooting just 33% from the floor, but the Trojans (2-1) couldn\u2019t capitalize. Their shooting percentage (36%) was almost as bad through the first two quarters and they were outrebounded 27-20 as South Carolina scored nine second-chance points on nine offensive boards.<\/p>\n USC guard Malia Samuels, center, is fouled by South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards (8) in the second half Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The cracks started to show in the second half, when South Carolina opened with a 10-2 run to give USC a double-digit deficit. The Gamecocks outscored the Trojans 23-15 in the third.<\/p>\n South Carolina built on every advantage it had from the first half. The Gamecocks\u2019 rebounding advantage ballooned from seven to 24. They went from nine offensive rebounds to 21, and while they still finished the game with 17 turnovers, they forced with 16 points off USC\u2019s 13 turnovers balanced it out.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s easier to figure out how to get really good when we\u2019re challenged,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cWe learned a lot of things about ourselves against NC State. I think we\u2019ll learn hopefully equally, if not more, tonight about what we can be really good at. What we need to get a lot better at. But it is a process.\u201d<\/p>\n Gottlieb noted the Trojans\u2019 newcomers are still adapting to new roles early in the season. Even though USC lost, Saturday represented a key learning opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw some things from our team I really liked,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cI thought we had some fight, some things to build on. Obviously we\u2019re not yet where we need to be, but I think this game will really help us get there in an expedited fashion. <\/p>\n \u201cExcited about what\u2019s next for us, but disappointed with the fact that we couldn\u2019t hold on and be a little bit more competitive down the stretch tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a comfortable win in hand as South Carolina dribbled out the clock, the sizable pro-Gamecocks share of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[34622,14474,28684,29086,34624,34623,48,52,51,47,50,49,3289,1417,7556,777,18891,14921,23138,34124,3533],"class_list":["post-55736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-com-arena-crowd","tag-comeback","tag-crypto","tag-double-figure","tag-first-half-turnover","tag-gamecocks","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-loss","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-second-half","tag-south-carolina","tag-third-quarter","tag-trojans","tag-turnover","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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