Staley Likes Effort Of Young Team

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Dawn Staley has plenty of things she’ll have to teach South Carolina’s young team. Giving top effort on each possession won’t be one of them, though. The Gamecocks fifth-year coach says her players have gone hard since practice began last month and that’s allowed Staley and her assistants to put in her system faster than in other seasons. But that doesn’t mean everything has gone smoothly. Staley lost last year’s top two scorers in Markeshia Grant and La’Keisha Sutton who accounted for more than a third of the Gamecocks points. There are five newcomers on the team, four of them freshmen. The Gamecocks had a breakthrough season last year, going 25-10 and reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003. They advanced to the round of 16.