Down went the top-ranked, undefeated South Carolina

Riding along on a 29-game win streak, and home at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia before a COPID-19 slim turnout Thursday night, top-ranked South Carolina’s women’s basketball team express abruptly came to a halt against 8th-ranked North Carolina State.

It was a close game most of the way between the two unbeaten teams, but in the final minutes it was the Wolfpack (4-0) taking charge on the way to a 54-46 win, and the first loss for the Gamecock in four starts. In the most recent national poll, South Carolina was on top of the heap with 29 first-place votes.

But now it will drop a bit, with No. 2 Stanford (3-0) probably taking over the top spot and UConn, which has yet to play its first game, will perhaps move into the No. 2 slot or remain at No. 3. Right behind are Baylor and Louisville.

It was all even at 40-all when NC State’s 5-foot-4 sophomore guardRaina Perez tossed in a 3 with 3:07 remaining. From there the Wolfpack outscored the home side 14-6, in a contest in which the field goal shooting below average, the Wolfpack at 29.4 percent, the Gamecocks at 27.0. But from the free throw like, North Carolina State converted at a remarkable 83.3 and South Carolina at a dismal 36.4.

In the rebounding, NC State held a 54-49 advantage, as well as 7-6 in blocks, and 9-11 in turnovers. In steals, it was all even at 2-2.

The Gamecocks’ 19-game home win streak also became history, and it was the first loss for the program since the 73-69 setback to North Carolina on Nov. 29, 2019, and the first time at home since falling, 68-64, to Mississippi State in the final regular-season game of 2018.

“I’m of course thrilled and proud of this landmark victory,” saidWolfpack head coach Wes Moore, “then celebrate this for 24 hours and then must concentrate on our Sunday game at home against Coastal Carolina.”

Gamecock head coach Dawn Stanley gave credit to North Carolina State and then said it just was a badly played game by our own team.

She added, “We did nothing well, we didn’t pay attention to the coaching, we gave up too many easy baskets, and hopefully we will bounce back from this, but this is among the worse I’ve seen from any of my teams in 21 years of coaching.”

Perez wound up with 11 points and a team-high four assists. Kayla Jones, a 6-1 senior forward, added 16 and a dozen rebounds. Then there was 6-foot sophomore wing also contributing 12 boards and tossing in 11 points.

For South Carolina, there were two 11-point scorers, 5-9 sophomore guard Zia Cooke and 6-4 sophomore forward Laeticia Amihee, with the latter bringing down a game-high 15 rebounds and 5-7 junior guard Destanni Henderson handing out six assists, the team high.