The guards carried the scoring load for the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks, who won second-chance points 18-5 and went on a 43-15 run over the middle portion of the game en route to a 73-60 win over the Tennessee Lady Volunteers Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
Brea Beal finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Zia Cooke paced the winners with 19 points and Kierra Fletcher added 15 points and three helpers. That’s 61.6 percent of the Gamecocks’ scoring coming from those three guards. Aliyah Boston chipped in with 11 points and four blocks, while her frontcourt mate Kamilla Cardoso had 15 boards and three rejections. South Carolina (28-0, 15-0 SEC) hauled in 20 offensive rebounds with six coming from Beal and five coming from Cardoso. The team averages 18.3 on the season, which is second in the nation.
On the other side, Rickea Jackson was not afraid to take over the game at times, leading Tennessee (20-10, 12-3 SEC) with 21 points. Jordan Horston added 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in defeat.
The Gamecocks’ 43-15 run took the score from 26-16 Tennessee at the 6:37 mark of the second quarter to 59-41 South Carolina entering the fourth.
Eighteen is a very difficult deficit to come back from in 10 minutes, but the…
