No. 3 Gamecocks Open SEC Tournament Play Friday

Game Information Opponent: Arkansas (17-12, 6-10 SEC) – No. 8 seed Date: Friday, March 6, 2015 | Noon (CT) Site: North Little Rock, Ark. Arena: Verizon Arena (18,000) Broadcast: SEC Network (Cara Capuano, pxp; Gail Goestenkors, analyst; Steffi Sorensen, sideline); via WatchESPN Radio: 107.5 The Game (Brad Muller); SEC Radio Network Sirius 219/XM 190; GamecocksOnline.com Live Stats: SECnetwork.com Series History: ARK leads 17-13 South Carolina Notables South Carolina is in its 41st season of women’s basketball. It is the program’s 24th season in the SEC and the seventh under head coach Dawn Staley. The back-to-back SEC champion has won at least 25 games in each of the last four seasons and played in the last three NCAA Tournaments, including two trips to the Sweet 16 (2012, 2014). The Gamecocks have spent 27 straight weeks ranked in the AP top 10, highlighted by 12 weeks at No. 1 this season. The Gamecocks are 8-23 all-time in the SEC Tournament with a 5-6 record under head coach Dawn Staley. All five of Staley’s wins have come in the last four seasons as South Carolina played in two semifinals in the last three tournaments. This season marks the second straight that South Carolina has earned the No. 1 seed in the event. The Gamecocks have played Arkansas in the SEC Tournament twice before (1995, 2002), losing both times. South Carolina dominated the SEC coaches’ awards for the second-straight season, collecting four of the six individual honors and becoming the first team to have three entries on the All-SEC First Team since 2001. Only three program’s in league history have done that as South Carolina joins Tennessee (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001) and Georgia (1997). Junior Tiffany Mitchell became the league’s first back-to-back outright Player of the Year since LSU’s Seimone Augusts in 2005, 2006 and the sixth all-time. A’ja Wilson was the Gamecocks’ second SEC Freshman of the Year in as many seasons, and senior Aleighsa Welch became the Gamecocks’ first SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Dawn Staley wrapped up the individual winners as co-Coach of the Year, and sophomore Alaina Coates closed out the South Carolina entries with spots on the All-SEC Second Team and All-Defensive Team. The Gamecock bench is among the most envied in the nation, averaging 37.2 points per game on the season. The group has tied or out-scored its starting teammates 16 times, including 11 SEC contests. Headlined by super-subs Alaina Coates (10.6 ppg/8.1 rpg) and A’ja Wilson (13.7 ppg/7.0 rpg), the group is actually multi-dimensional, especially in SEC action, during which freshman Bianca Cuevas averaged 6.8 points and junior Tina Roy came in at 4.9 points per game on a team-best 43.1 percent shooting from 3-point range. South Carolina is seventh in the nation with a .477 field goal percentage this season. Defensively, the Gamecocks have allowed just two opponents reach that percentage this season – UConn (.554, Feb. 9) and Vanderbilt (.481, Feb. 15). In fact, only six opponents have shot 40.0 percent or better this season and six other have failed to reach the 30.0 percent mark, leaving South Carolina 11th in the nation in field goal percentage defense. The Gamecocks have proven they can win games in a variety of ways – high or low scoring, inside or outside – because of a consistent defensive effort. South Carolina has won games scoring as few as 51 points (at Duke, Dec. 7) and as many as 111 (Savannah State, Dec. 14), but opponents have ranged just 26 (NC Central, Dec. 1) to 66 (Tennessee, Feb. 23) in the Gamecocks’ 27 wins. South Carolina has shown its versatility throughout games this season with six different Gamecocks leading the offense in at least one game – three guards (Tiffany Mitchell 12, Bianca Cuevas 2, Asia Dozier 1) and three post players (A’ja Wilson 13, Alaina Coates 2, Aleighsa Welch 3). Junior Tiffany Mitchell was named a Naismith Trophy semifinalist this week, keeping herself in the national player of the year conversation thanks to her ability to affect the game on both sides of the ball. She is the only active SEC player to rank among the league’s top 15 in points (2nd, 14.8 ppg), assists (14th, 2.8 apg) and steals (8th, 2.0). Senior Aleighsa Welch will finish her career as one of the all-time great rebounders in South Carolina history. Her 425 career offensive boards are just two shy of the school record (Marsha Williams, 1990-93). At 898 career total rebounds, Welch is on the cusp of becoming just the fourth player in school history to record 1,000 career points and 900 career boards. She is tied for ninth in program history with 21 career double-doubles. Forward A’ja Wilson closed the regular season with the best freshman rebounding game in program history with her 19 boards at Kentucky (Mar. 1), adding 16 points for her fifth double-double of the season. The top player in the 2014 signing class has been on a tear over the last six games, scoring 97 points in just 124 minutes. Wilson shot 52.4 percent over the stretch, averaging 16.2 points and 7.3 rebounds. Junior point guard Khadijah Sessions has been a star on both sides of the ball for the Gamecocks lately. Always a steady defender who sets the tone for the team, she has been making a splash offensively, especially in the last seven games, during which she has averaged 6.1 points on 45.7 percent shooting, including 46.7 percent from 3-point range. Sessions has handed out 3.5 assists and swiped 2.2 steals per game during the stretch as well. Prior to the UConn game, she averaged 4.0 points on 36.4 percent shooting with 21.1 percent from long range while averaging 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals.