NCAAW: South Carolina-Texas title game confirms SEC’s biggest rivalry

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It seems to have taken just a season for South Carolina-Texas to become a signature SEC rivalry.

On Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN, the Gamecocks and Longhorns will meet for the SEC Tournament championship, the third meeting of the season between the two teams that split the SEC regular-season championship. South Carolina enters the contest as the No. 1 seed, having won the deciding coin flip, even as Texas is ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation. Yet, such semantics will not matter on Sunday.

The previous two games between the teams were quite distinct. In the first matchup, played on South Carolina’s turf in mid-January, the Gamecocks outclassed the Longhorns from the jump, eventually winning 67-50 as Texas suffered through one of their most inefficient offensive outings of the season. In the rematch in Austin in early February, Texas held off South Carolina for a 66-62 win that snapped the Gamecocks’ 57-game SEC regular-season winning streak.

What will happen on Sunday? Here’s what the Gamecocks and Longhorns need to do to win:

How the Gamecocks can win it all

In South Carolina’s loss to Texas, only MiLaysia Fulwiley, the SEC Sixth Player of the Year, scored in double figures, netting 13 points off the bench. While South Carolina’s depth often is their greatest weapon, a wide distribution of single-digit scorers is not conducive to success. Head coach Dawn Staley needs her players with star potential to step up and play like stars, making plays that can lift the team into the rarified realm they’re capable of reaching.

Fulwiley, certainly, will be ready to fill that role. In Saturday’s 93-75 semifinal rout of Oklahoma, she had 19 points and five assists, all achieved with more than a little flair, in 21 minutes. The Gamecocks’ other young super sub also had an impressive afternoon, with Joyce Edwards scoring a team-high 21 points. That duo possess the dynamism required to drive South Carolina to a third-straight SEC Tournament title.

In particular, both Fulwiley and Edwards are elite athletes who can make the kind of defensive plays that get the Gamecocks’ transition game rolling, allowing South Carolina to score before Texas sets it’s SEC-leading defense. And when that happens, expect all the FAMs filling Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville to get loud, further fueling South Carolina’s defense-to-offense force-multiplying attack.

How the Longhorns can win it all

While South Carolina dropped 93 points in their semifinal track meet against Oklahoma, Texas engaged in a wrestling match with LSU, prevailing 56-49.

SEC Player of the Year Madison Booker was responsible for nearly half of the Longhorns’ points, scoring 25 total with 18 coming in the first half. Otherwise, Texas, after shooting less than 32 percent from the field as team while turning the ball over 18 times, was fortunate to escape against LSU, as the Tigers, who already were without Flau’jae Johnson, lost double-double machine Aneesah Morrow to ankle injury in the third quarter.

Yet, a 15-game winning streak, the Longhorns’ current mark, often requires earning some ugly wins. And while SEC Coach of the Year Vic Schaefer would prefer to see a sharper performance from his squad on Sunday, he likely would be fine with another grimy victory.

In both games against South Carolina, Texas was successful on the glass. That included grabbing 20 offensive boards in their loss in Columbia before snagging 15 o-boards in their victory Austin. Offensive rebounds not only will earn Texas second chances, which, unlike in their loss to South Carolina, they’ll hopefully be successful converting, but also can prevent the Gamecocks from reaching their high-flying transition gear. Although Texas’ 80.7 points per game just barely trails South Carolina’s 81.0, the Longhorns have a better chance of earning their first-ever SEC title in their first season in the conference if the final is a slog rather than a sprint.