Where to watch Texas vs. South Carolina: TV station, live coverage of SEC clash
The SEC is the toughest conference in women’s college basketball and two of the heavyweights will face off Thursday night in one of the biggest regular season games of the season. No. 2 South Carolina hosted No. 4 Texas in the Players Era contest in November, and this game could be a resume booster come March.
The rivals know each other well, as it will be their sixth meeting in 369 days. In all these games both teams are ranked in the top five in the AP.
South Carolina is 17-1 this season, with the Gamecocks’ only loss coming at the hands of the Longhorns in November. That game didn’t take away from their SEC record, meaning Dawn Staley’s team is still undefeated in conference play. Meanwhile, Texas is 18-1 overall and 3-1 in SEC play after last weekend’s loss to LSU. Here’s everything you need to know before this top five comparison.
Where to watch No. 4 in Texas at No. 2 South Carolina
The day: Thursday, Jan. 15 | Time: 7pm ET
LocationVenue: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
TV: ESPN2 | Live streaming: fubo (Try it for free)
Opportunities (via FanDuel): South Carolina -3.5, O/U: 137.5
How Texas won in November
South Carolina leads the series 5-4 since 1988, including a win in the Final Four last April. However, Texas took the most recent victory Rori Harmon’s last second shot in the Players Era championship game in Las Vegas.
At the time, South Carolina was ranked No. 2 and Texas was No. 4. The Longhorns had lost to then-No. 3 UCLA the previous day, making them the first team in at least 25 years to beat two top-three opponents in consecutive games.
Texas only used a seven-player rotation against South Carolina due to injuries, but that was all the Longhorns needed. Harmon finished the game with just six points, but was instrumental in his team’s offense with nine assists. Madison Booker had 16 points and 9 rebounds, while Jordan Lee led all scorers with 19 points.
Four South Carolina players scored in double figures, led by Ta’Niya Latson’s 16 points. Madina Okot also stood out with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Can Texas ‘can’ and bounce back after Sunday’s loss to LSU and Vic Schaefer’s postgame speech?
Texas is undefeated after suffering a 70-65 loss to LSU last weekend. Although the Longhorns’ offense has seen significant improvement since last season, they have struggled in Baton Rouge. Vic Shaefer’s team has the top assist/turnover ratio in the country, but on Sunday, his team registered a season-high 17 assists and just 9 assists.
Mikaylah Williams limited Booker significantly in the first half. Meanwhile, Lee made three field goals and Harmon sat out the fourth quarter.
During the press conference after the game, Booker said that his team must find out how to prepare for South Carolina because they did not show that they were prepared on Sunday. Schaefer was also talking about it not liking the schedule where they had to play LSU and South Carolina back to back on the road.
Defense and rebounding will be key
One of the things that helped LSU beat Texas was a 44-35 comeback win. Staley highlighted this as one of the key areas that helped the Tigers and something he wants his team to focus on.
Defense will also be key as these are two teams in the top 15 nationally in scoring defense. Their offenses have had a positive effect on some of their opponents, but this will not be a high-scoring affair. Texas’ lowest-scoring games this season were against top SEC opponents South Carolina (66-64 win) and LSU (70-65 loss). As for the Gamecocks, they only scored 65 points in wins against Clemson and Georgia, but their 66-64 loss at Texas was a season low.
“They made it difficult,” Staley said. “They make it hard for you to pass. Anywhere on the floor. Anywhere. For us, we’ve got to be disciplined. We’ve got to be disciplined about how we want to play defense and not give them too many ways to get off screens. You’ve got to give them one lane, and that’s hard enough to guard, but if you give them options you’re going to be working everywhere, we need to use energy as we’re on the offense side of the ball.”
