GREENVILLE — Kentucky star center Clara Strack tied her career-high of 33 points less than 24 hours before she played South Carolina women’s basketball.
But in South Carolina’s 87-64 win in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals March 6, Strack got nothing easy against Gamecocks star forward Joyce Edwards, finishing with 11 points, six below her average.
Execution mattered but so did the 6-foot-3 Edwards’ preparation to guard the 6-foot-5 Strack.
“I feel like the mentality, we knew they were going to go to Strack, we knew she just had 30 before that, we knew they also played three games so the legs would be a little dead. That was part of (the success),” Edwards said.
On March 1 to close the regular season, Edwards also started the game on Strack. But what changed for the SEC Tournament was Edwards’ offense didn’t suffer while handling the most critical defensive assignment.
She went from a season-low nine points in Lexington to a team-high 21 in the SEC Tournament victory for the Gamecocks (30-2), her 19th 20-point game of the season.
Strack had 10 first-half points in the regular-season game, a nod to Edwards’ defense but finished with 24 points in the Gamecocks 60-56 win.
Edwards’ swarmed Strack most of the first half again at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, allowing just six points. But Strack only had five more points, three of which came without Edwards on the floor.
“Just getting in (Strack’s) body. We know she likes to do that turnaround fade, everybody knows it. Just making her put the ball on the floor,” Edwards said.
Strack had five turnovers, tying her second-most this season.
During halftime of the second-round game for Kentucky against Georgia, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told the SEC Network desk that Georgia needed to make Strack play defense.
The Bulldogs didn’t have the post talent to challenge Strack but with 6-6 center Madina Okot and Edwards, South Carolina did.
Okot and Edwards needed to provide on both ends.
Strack guarded Okot so getting the ball to Okot to put Strack in foul trouble was the goal. When Edwards was on the bench, Okot need to play strong defense. Okot had 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Strack had five rebounds, tying her second lowest this season.
Staley said the scout necessarily didn’t change but the execution was the difference. What changed was Edwards had help from her teammates to double Strack that she didn’t have in Lexington.
“I saw Joyce just adjust,” Staley said. “I thought we made her feel a lot more comfortable with knowing that, if you send her in a certain direction, we have your help … so she was really good at just locking into where she knew her help spots were going to be and funneling Strack to those help spots.”
Strack had only scored less than 12 points in six games this season and had a career-high five 3-pointers the day before.
Edwards has led South Carolina in scoring the last two seasons, averaging 20 this season as a sophomore. But defensively, she’s still growing.
“I mean, she wants to win and she knew the best way for us to win the game is just kind of cut Strack’s production in half,” Staley said of Edwards.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
