COLLEGE STATION, Texas — MiLaysia Fulwiley scored a career-high 21 points off the bench, and Kamilla Cardoso added 17 points with 13 rebounds as top-ranked South Carolina raced to a huge early lead and didn’t let up in a 99-64 rout of Texas A&M on Sunday.
Coach Dawn Staley was impressed with the performance of Fulwiley, who is a freshman.
“She was confident,” Staley said. “When a player is confident some magical things can happen.”
Sania Feagin added 15 points as South Carolina (17-0, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) remained perfect as the country’s last unbeaten team.
Despite that, Staley said she still believes her team can be much better.
“You should see us at practice,” Staley said. “Practice grounds us, it really does. So we don’t know if the team that sometimes practices the way that they do will show up in games and it does show up in little (spurts). But I think for the most part we’re connected, we've got a good group. They just want to win. They don’t care who does what. They just want to win at the end of the day.”
The Gamecocks were up by 31 at halftime and had pushed the lead to 34 after three.
“If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do that’s how they’re going to look,” Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor said. “I think we came out timid. We weren’t aggressive on either side of the basketball.”
Texas A&M (14-4, 2-3) made four free throws to get within 30 with about eight minutes to go. But the Gamecocks used an 8-2 run, with five points from Cardoso, to make it 89-53 with about 5 ½ minutes left, and several of their starters sat down after that.
Endyia Rogers scored 21 for the Aggies, who have lost three of their last five.
“We got off to a slow start,” Rogers said. “We got down by a lot, and like coach said, we can’t expect to come back after we dig ourselves into that kind of hole.”
South Carolina has won four in a row over Texas A&M and 11 of the last 12 in the series.
The Gamecocks raced out to a 15-0 lead and were up 25-8 at the end of a first quarter where Texas A&M made just 2 of 19 shots.
South Carolina was up by 16 with about five minutes left in the second quarter before using a 20-5 run to end the period and stretch the lead to 54-23 at halftime.
The Gamecocks scored the last nine points of the quarter with the help of three turnovers. Fulwiley made the last five points in that stretch, capped by a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Texas A&M’s Janiah Barker, who is third on the team with 12.1 points a game, sat out in the concussion protocol.
BIG PICTURE
South Carolina: The Gamecocks looked untouchable Sunday, as they have for much of the season. They’ll face their biggest test to date Thursday night when they visit No. 10 LSU.
Texas A&M: The Aggies are improved from last season but are still a long way from competing with the country’s elite teams.
UP NEXT
South Carolina: Visits LSU on Thursday night.
Texas A&M: Visits Missouri on Thursday night.
