LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas— There was no sharing this trophy.
After being named co-champions of the SEC in the regular season, No. 1 seeded South Carolina met the No. 2 Lady Vols for a much anticipated rematch, this time in the SEC Tournament Championship Game held at Verizon Arena.
While the atmosphere may have been different, the result was the same as South Carolina took advantage of Tennessee’s offensive struggles to beat the Lady Vols 62-46, and secure their first SEC Tournament Championship.
“South Carolina was tough, they played hard,” head coach Holly Warlick said. “They’re very deserving of the game. I thought our kids battled, it just wasn’t our night.”
Tennessee (27-5) trailed 41-38 with 11:33 left in the game, but went cold from the field over the last nine minutes. The Lady Vols shot just 2-of-14 over that stretch and just 4-of-10 from the free throw line.
The Gamecocks (30-2) took advantage of that dry spell, closing out the game on a 21-8 run, and ending Tennessee’s hopes for a second consecutive tournament title.
“We missed easy shots,” Warlick said. “We missed layups, we missed free throws. Our margin for error against South Carolina is very small. You got to make shots that are around the basket and layups, and we didn’t”
Tennessee took a five point lead with 3:59 left in the first half when Cierra Burdick followed an Alexa Middleton three, with an easy back-door layup, but the Gamecocks quickly answered.
Four straight points from Freshman of the Year A’ja Wilson capped an 8-0 run for South Carolina and put the Lady Vols in a three point hole they would not be able to overcome.
“I commend them for the run that they made,” senior forward Cierra Burdick said. “Once they made it, we couldn’t really get it back and that’s what hurt us.
Offensively, Tennessee looked to sophomore guard Jordan Reynolds for production when shots weren’t falling. Reynolds followed up her 13 point performance in Saturday’s semifinals by setting a new career high on Sunday.
The Portland, Oregon native scored 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added a pair of first half threes to help give the Lady Vols an early lead. After averaging just 6.5 points per game in the regular season, Reynolds has expanded her game in the postseason, averaging over 11 points in three tournament games.
“I tried to stay in attack mode for my teammates,” Reynolds said. “I just tried to take some of the pressure off of them because I know the teams are gonna come after them so harshly, so I thought it would be an awesome time to step up.”
It wasn’t the play of SEC Player of the Year Tiffany Mitchell that led South Carolina, Mitchell had 17 points and seven rebounds, but it was a familiar face in Aleighsa Welch who took home the Tournament MVP award.
In the first meeting between the two teams, Welch had 19 points and 14 rebounds, nine of which were on the offensive end. In the rematch she continued her domination of the post, scoring 14 points and grabbing five more offensive rebounds.
Welch opened the second half with four consecutive points as she grabbed two misses on the offensive end and was able to finish at the rim, adding to the Gamecock’s 19 second chance points on the game.
“They’re blue collar work horses,” Burdick said of South Carolina’s post players. “So it’s physical down there, and then the fact that they can continue to just sub in and out and have a revolving door. That hurts.”
Outside of Reynolds, no Lady Vols reached double figures as Bashaara Graves and Andraya Carter both had seven, while Burdick and Jaime Nared added six each.
With the completion of the conference tournament, all eyes turn to the NCAA Tournament that will be held in a couple weeks, and while Tennessee didn’t get the result it wanted in Little Rock, Warlick doesn’t think that will affect her team going forward.
“We’re stepping up to the plate, we got something to say,” Warlick said. “I don’t know what we’re gonna get seeded. We’re gonna take whatever they give us.”
