It has been more than two months since South Carolina has garnered more than a single No. 1 vote in the AP ballots. But come Monday, don’t be surprised if the Gamecocks gain ground on No. 1 UCLA, the only team to defeat SC so far this season.

That road loss to the Bruins in November is the one piece of No. 2 South Carolina’s resume that doesn’t scream No. 1. But with a 66-56 win over No. 5 LSU — the Tigers’ first loss this season — in front of a sold-out crowd Friday night, the Gamecocks bolstered their case for moving to the top spot in the rankings, ahead of the only team that has beaten them (and right now, the only remaining undefeated women’s basketball team in America).

South Carolina now has nine wins over Quad 1 teams (the next-most nationally is five by Notre Dame and UCLA). The Gamecocks are 19-1 while playing the toughest schedule in the country this season. On Friday, they earned their fifth win of the season against a top-10 team (at the time of the game) and remained undefeated in the SEC. Their balanced attack has proven, yet again, to be their secret sauce.

The game was pushed back from Thursday night after winter weather made it hazardous for the Tigers to depart from Baton Rouge on time. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley admitted that made her a bit nervous because she felt as though her team had prepared to play well Thursday night and adding a delay, she worried, could mess with her team a bit.

“I actually didn’t know what team was going to show up,” Staley said. “We had one extra day that I really didn’t want.”

Perhaps that extra delay reared its head in the first quarter for South Carolina. The Gamecocks played a nearly even first 10 minutes with the Tigers, turning the ball over four times and getting outrebounded. But as South Carolina settled in, its usual attack became a defensive juggernaut and a balanced offensive unit.

Only two players finished in double digits for the Gamecocks — freshman Joyce Edwards (14 points) and senior Sania Feagin (12), but four others scored at least six points (which, in a 66-point game, feels very balanced). South Carolina attacked the paint, getting to the free throw line 26 times while protecting the rim on the other end without sending LSU to the charity stripe. Six players recorded blocks for the Gamecocks, which finished with 11 total.

“Defensively, I thought we were connected,” Staley said. “We made some adjustments in the second quarter and at halftime to just limit the amount of easy buckets that they were getting in the first quarter. … We just had to clean a little bit of that up.”

In the middle of the third quarter, the Gamecocks extended their lead to nine, characteristically using that SC defensive pressure to create turnovers and poor decisions and converting those into a cushion. That spurt kicked off a defensive stand that held LSU without a field goal for more than nine minutes until Mikaylah Williams knocked down a midrange jumper midway through the fourth quarter.

While Edwards was the team’s leading scorer, Feagin’s performance stood out the most as she had her hands on every part of the game with 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals.

She’s the latest in a long line of South Carolina players who come into college as a top recruit before spending multiple seasons in a marginal role for the team before becoming a key starter or contributor in their final season or two. Feagin entered South Carolina as the No. 4 player in the 2021 class but didn’t average more than 10 minutes a game until her junior season. This year, she’s only averaging 17 minutes a game but has seen an increased responsibility for the Gamecocks following Ashlyn Watkins’ ACL tear earlier this month.

The game was the first genuine measuring stick for LSU (20-1) this season after a non-conference slate that had just one top-25 opponent (then-No. 20 NC State in the SEC-ACC Challenge). Holding South Carolina to 66 points is certainly an impressive feat — the only lower-scoring game for the Gamecocks this season was their loss to UCLA. However, the Tigers couldn’t find enough of an offensive spark and cohesion to match. LSU turned the ball over 17 times and its big three — Flau’jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Williams — were held to 30 percent shooting from the floor.

The win is another positive mark on a growing resume for South Carolina, and with No. 17 Tennessee and a rematch with No. 7 Texas on the horizon, the Gamecocks will only have opportunities to keep gaining ground on the Bruins. It’s not often for an undefeated team to be overtaken in the rankings (especially by a team it already defeated), but South Carolina is getting dangerously close to making that argument make the most sense.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

South Carolina Gamecocks, LSU Lady Tigers, Women's College Basketball

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