NC State was not up to the challenge of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon—and while you could replace [NC State] with virtually anyone, that’s not particularly helpful. The entire point is the chase against South Carolina’s standard, after all.
The game started reasonably okay, but NC State barged into unnecessary problems with careless turnovers. State shot the ball well enough in the first half to hang tight despite those turnovers—this did not carry over into the second half. The shooting, I mean; the turnovers did—and here we see the rather obvious difference in talent between Dawn Staley’s death machine and Wes Moore’s current (talented) work in progress.
The Gamecocks are not interesting to watch, but they have a certitude of purpose and the execution that goes with it. Staley’s bunch is perpetually disruptive, and they took well advantage today of an NC State team still figuring itself out. Push that turnover margin closer to even, and who knows. Perhaps this is something we can talk about again in March. Good chance on that one, actually.
But not today. This was about the best possible time to catch State, here in early November. State was trying to tap dance through various injuries and a green frontcourt against the best team in the country, and this did not work.
South Carolina’s perimeter defense was again stifling, rendering both Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers non-factors; few teams can matchup there and also play with the necessary discipline, but South Carolina can, and for two games in a row now, Dawn Staley has cooked Wes Moore, who has proven capable of no counterpunch.