For roughly a minute, it was close: Seventy-eight seconds into the first quarter Friday, defending national champion South Carolina was tied 2-2 with Division II Coker.
Then … well, then things got out of hand.
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks hardly seemed to miss a step from last year’s national title squad, thrashing the Cobras 116-56 at Colonial Life Arena in their only exhibition game of the preseason.
After that 2-2 tie, USC went on a 40-4 run to close out the first quarter, with the starting unit of forward A’ja Wilson, forward Alexis Jennings, guard Tyasha Harris, guard Lindsey Spann and guard Doniyah Cliney seemingly incapable of missing.