South Carolina vs UConn basketball gameday guide: Point guard matchup looms large
When South Carolina and Connecticut women’s basketball meet Monday night for their annual rivalry game, many of the faces from last year’s 70-52 Gamecock victory over the Huskies last year will still be on the floor — Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Brea Beal all still start for USC, as do Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa for UConn.
And the battle in the paint between bigs Boston and Nelson-Ododa will certainly be discussed and dissected as a crucial matchup.
But it might be the new faces, or at least faces new to the starting lineup, that could make the difference, particularly at point guard.
For South Carolina, junior Destanni Henderson has stepped into an expanded starting role this season and established herself as a solid replacement for the graduated Tyasha Harris. She’s third on the team in scoring and rebounding, first in assists and second in total Win Shares. And more than anyone, she personifies and powers the team’s identity of attacking in transition with speed and aggressiveness.
Last season, Harris was crucial to USC’s victory over UConn, scoring 19 points and dishing out 11 assists. This year, coach Dawn Staley says Henderson has to be dominant, but within her own style of play.
“Ty is a pick-you-apart point guard, and she did just that. Special game by her, she controlled the entire tempo on both sides of the ball. Henny probably has a little bit less pressure in that. Henny just has to do what she does, which is push the ball down the floor, find us some easy buckets, whether it’s her or dishing it off to one of her teammates,” Staley said.
“But the pace has got to be in a place in which we put UConn back on their heels. They’re gonna put us back on our heels — we got to give it right back to them and not be a half-court set-up team against UConn. We have to find some easy transition buckets, and we got to push tempo, we got to make them play on the defensive side of the ball.”
Forcing the Huskies to work defensively is also key to Staley’s plan for containing the Huskies’ star freshman, guard Paige Bueckers. Bueckers enters Monday’s game on a hot streak, scoring 30 or more points in back-to-back games, and Staley was highly complimentary of UConn’s top scorer.
“How we’ll guard her, everyone’s gonna get a chance to guard her, because you just can’t allow her to settle in on one person. And at some point the way they play, they move so well that you’re gonna have to switch off. So everybody gets to guard her. I’m just hoping that somebody is able to just make her into something that she hasn’t been all season, which is not very efficient,” Staley said. “That’s a hard feat. We just got to make her take tough shots and make her work for 40 minutes on both sides of the ball.”
From UConn’s perspective, Bueckers and fellow freshman Nika Muhl will have a tall task of their own in trying to contain Henderson and sophomore Zia Cooke. Coach Geno Auriemma called South Carolina the biggest defensive challenge his team will have played thus far this season.
“Their guards are really, really a big, big part of what makes them go and how quickly they get into transition and their ability to put the ball on the floor,” Auriemma said of Henderson and Cooke. “And when they go on these runs where they can make shots, it makes for a lot to handle.”
USC-UConn: What time, what channel
Who: No. 2 South Carolina (15-1, 10-0 SEC) vs. No. 3 UConn (13-1, 11-0 Big East)
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Connecticut
Watch: FS1
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
South Carolina
Destanni Henderson — junior guard
Zia Cooke — sophomore guard
Brea Beal — sophomore guard
Victaria Saxton — junior forward
Aliyah Boston — sophomore forward
UConn
Paige Bueckers — freshman guard
Christyn Williams — junior guard
Evina Westbrook — junior guard
Aaliyah Edwards — freshman forward
Olivia Nelson-Ododa — junior forward
STAT WATCH
South Carolina
Points scored per game: 82.1 (11th nationally)
Points allowed per game: 58.9 (49th)
Field goal percentage: 46.1% (24th)
3-point percentage: 35.2% (42nd)
Free throw percentage: 65.3% (263rd)
Rebounds per game: 50.3 (3rd)
Steals per game: 7.6 (167th)
Blocked shots per game: 7.4 (1st)
UConn
Points scored per game: 87.1 (3rd nationally)
Points allowed per game: 54.4 (14th)
Field goal percentage: 53.3% (1st)
3-point percentage: 37.4% (13th)
Free throw percentage: 70.0% (171st)
Rebounds per game: 41.1 (46th)
Steals per game: 9.7 (40th)
Blocked shots per game: 5.7 (12th)
