No. 1 South Carolina wins 19th in row
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) >> Kamilla Cardoso scored 13 of her 17 points in the final two quarters as No. 1 South Carolina won its 19th straight over Mississippi with a 85-56 victory Sunday.
Cardoso, the 6-foot-7 leading scorer and rebounder for Gamecocks (21-0, 9-0 Southeastern Conference), picked up two fouls less than four minutes into the game and went to the bench. She played just nine minutes in the first half.
Cardoso was her dominant self when she got back in helping South Carolina to a 16-2 run that spanned halftime to take control and extend its program record to 52 straight wins at home.
“She’s a difference maker,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “She needs to get more and more comfortable being the focal point.”
And it took Cardoso to help turn a nail-biter into South Carolina’s latest blowout.
The Rebels (16-6, 6-3) were within 32-31 on Kharyssa Richardson’s foul shot with 3:17 left before the break.
Cardoso started the surge with an inside bucket, her first of the game, before Tessa Johnson added a 3-pointer and MiLaysia Fulwiley’s extended right-arm flip shot in the final seconds put the Gamecocks ahead 40-31.
South Carolina picked it back up in the third quarter, with TeHina Paopao hitting a three and Cardoso adding two more buckets for a 48-33 lead.
Ole Miss, which has not beaten the Gamecocks since the 2010 SEC Tournament, could not answer.
Fulwiley scored 14 points while Paopao and Ashlyn Watkins finished with 11 points each for South Carolina. Watkins added 10 rebounds for her second consecutive game with a double-double.
Watkins was starting her second straight game, cracking the lineup due to Chloe Kitts’ illness. “I just played to my full potential and showed that I can do that,” said Watkins, a 6-3 sophomore who has the only two dunks in program history.
“I knew that my team needed my rebounds and stuff,” she said. “So I made an effort to play like that.”
Madison Scott had 17 points to lead the Rebels, who saw their four-game win streak this season snapped.
THE BIG PICTURE Mississippi: Rebels coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has her team pushing for a third straight NCAA Tournament trip, something that had not happened since Van Chancellor did it from 1994-96. But Ole Miss still does not have enough to challenge the Gamecocks.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks have won eight of their nine SEC games by double digits. The lone exception came last month at LSU, where they rallied from 11 points down for a 7670 win over the defending national champions.