There might not be a more watched women’s college basketball game this regular season than the No. 5 LSU Tigers against the No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks.
ESPN’s College Gameday will be in Columbia for the matchup, just like it was in Baton Rouge last season when LSU hosted the game.
With this season’s matchup on the Gamecocks’ homecourt, the Reveille interviewed the Daily Gamecock’s sports editor, Brendan Dougherty, ahead of the matchup.
The game is set to tip-off on Friday at 4 p.m. after being rescheduled due to weather.
Q: LSU ranks second in the country in rebounds per game as a team. How much emphasis will be placed on players like Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards to especially control LSU’s guards from creating second chances?
A: Yeah, the pressure will definitely be on them, not just exclusively them. Joyce, she’s still like a bench player, believe it or not. Dawn will be slow with the freshmen. Joyce, she’s the leading scorer on the team, but she is coming off the bench, it’s unbelievable. The bigs are definitely going to have to rebound; Sania Feagin’s another name to look at there. She’s going to be getting a lot of minutes at the forward. But not specifically just them; Raven Johnson is a very good rebounder for a guard, Bree Hall will be getting down there. I think it’ll be a team effort, and I think it starts with the perimeter defense of these Gamecock guards to not let Aneesah Morrow and Flau’jae get deep in the paint.
Q: Like you said, Joyce Edwards comes off the bench, and kind of like a similar position that MiLaysia Fulwiley was in last year. Is that a consistent Dawn Staley approach?
A: So our five is Paopao, Raven and Bree are the guards, and those are three upperclassmen. Kitts is the four, and she’s a junior…and then Feagin’s a senior. Yeah MiLaysia, Joyce and Tessa Johnson are three of our most skilled shooters, and that’s sophomore, sophomore, freshman. I think they’ll get their moment, but they are very, very critical players to this team. Tessa Johnson, when she has the ball in her hand, I rarely see her miss. I feel like MiLaysia brings so much juice. She’s not the most efficient player; has a turnover problem. Her defense is unbelievable; get her in transition, she will get you points, looks for that extra pass. Joyce Edwards uses her size so well. She has so much poise in the paint. She has her head up all the time, looking for someone to dump it off to, looking to swing to the corner, looking to create her own shot. They are all very, very special. I think Dawn just values the experience before giving her young stars that time.
Q: We talk about the depth again, right? Anybody can strike with that team. Is it kind of that way again this year?
A: She has her guards, and she has her forwards, and she rotates them individually. She’s not usually either forward heavy or guard heavy, but each lineup packs a different punch. She starts Raven and she starts Bree, I think they combine for 10 points a game. Paopao, the star from that guard group, she had the highest three-point percentage in the country last year. Chloe Kitts has really taken a turn offensively. She has really filled in for Kamilla [Cardoso], at least scoring. I was mostly impressed in the beginning of the year when Ashlyn Watkins was away from the team, now she has a torn ACL so we’re right back to square one. But Kitts was a steady 15, sometimes 20. And even though it’s dropped down a little bit, a couple bad games in conference, but I wouldn’t even call it bad, she just didn’t score, she’s been a reliable piece at the forward. And it was almost a critical step forward offensively because there wasn’t much juice in the starting five besides Paopao. But the whole bench, they are finding ways to score each and every way. I think that it’s where the depth is, because those bench pieces come in. When they match up against other teams’ benches, they’re really taking advantage of that.
Q: You bring up Ashlyn Watkins, just being a threat in the paint. Of course, torn ACL, she was away from the team earlier, like you said, kind of right back where we started. Do you think that could be a swing factor at all, just not having a piece like her in the paint?
A: Maybe, because the backup forwards after Kitts and Feagin, Maryam Dauda, transferred from Arkansas, she’s really the main one. Adhel Tac, she’s a freshman. I think they’re talented, I think they can play good basketball. They just don’t have the experience Ashlyn does, especially the experience with Dawn. Ashlyn Watkins brings a big punch. She is offensively and defensively great. She grabs a lot of rebounds in transition, she’ll throw down a dunk here and there. She’s definitely a fun player. She’s definitely someone the fan base loves. So without her on the court, yes, I feel like there is much left to be desired.
Q: We’ve been talking about rebounds pretty much this whole time, neither team really resorts to the three ball, more or less I would say. Mikayla Williams, Flau’jae, they’re capable of catching fire. How much of a factor will perimeter defense play going into this?
A: It’s whoever Raven [Johnson] is guarding is going to have a tough night. She only scores five points a game, but at the beginning of the year, she was averaging like five points and eight rebounds. I think she’s the player on the team that Dawn Staley trusts the most. And it all starts on the defensive end. She’s willing to take that extra step, get her hands dirty, be someone that gets under the opposing team’s feathers. She is definitely a difference maker. We saw it in the national championship against Caitlin Clark. She gave Caitlin a tough time, that is not an easy thing to do. Even though she’s not a scorer, she will make it difficult for your most talented scorer. So if you can beat Raven, you’ll have a good chance, but it’s not an easy task.
Q: When it comes to everything South Carolina’s done well this year, is there any common concern from start to now that there’s been over this team?
A: I would love a healthy Watkins, I’d love Kamilla Cardoso to still be on the team. But it’s so hard to be nitpicky when the standard a year ago was undefeated. Then in November, they go out to No. 5 UCLA…for a three o’clock game, they played two days before, I can’t blame them for getting beat. With this team, I just see the depth again. Particularly at the guard play, they all can come in and give you something. And I think Joyce Edwards has really given this team the spark they needed. I think MiLaysia has definitely gotten a lot better. Then there’s another freshman, Maddy McDaniel, who hasn’t played a whole lot; she’s played more in conference play than she did in non conference play. But she has like a 6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, it’s unbelievable. She doesn’t score all that much, but she will get out there and just make the smart play; will not turn it over. It’s unbelievable. So all these players on this team bring a unique skill set, who can give you a different thing every night. They might not be the leading scorer, it won’t be the same leading scorer every night, but they’ll give you something. The first four games of conference play, they had a different leading scorer in each of the games. It’s like they throw all this talent at you at once, and if you can’t stack up on all five and get ready for the next five on the bench, this team offers a long night for anybody if they’re locked in.
Q: Is there kind of a dark horse that you have in mind that could really emerge in a game like this?
A: I think Bree Hall is overdue for a big game. She’s a leader on the team; upperclassmen, she makes the smart plays. I think she’s due for a big game, not even double-digit scoring, but big shots in the fourth quarter. She’s just so steady, she’s a smart basketball player. She’s a player that Dawn truly trusts. So she would be someone who’s the X-factor, for sure, because when you think of the juice and the offense, she’s not your first pick. But I feel like she can shoot like the rest of them.
Q: Score prediction, outcome, what are your thoughts?
A: I’m going to say 81-78 South Carolina, going to keep it tight.
