Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks keep their unbeaten streak intact in first-round NCAA tournament win over Presbyterian

Dawn Staley’s quest to cap off unbeaten South Carolina’s season with a national championship started with a 91-39 rout of Presbyterian on Friday.

Though the No. 1 overall seed Gamecocks were without suspended star center Kamilla Cardoso, it didn’t matter much. Playing on its home court in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina led the No. 16-seed Blue Hose by 27-10 at the end of the first quarter, and the lead grew from there.

“We were happy to get out there and knock some rust off,” Staley said. “I thought Presbyterian did a great job at spacing the floor, utilizing the weak side of the floor, and they really did a great job at getting some easy buckets against us. They made us adjust — I thought our team did a really great job at adjusting, especially in the third and fourth quarters, and then we got some really good play.”

Five of Staley’s players scored in double figures: Chloe Kitts (21 points, plus 13 rebounds), Te-Hina Paopao (18 points), MiLaysia Fulwiley (17), Sania Feagin (12 points, 10 rebounds), and Raven Johnson (11).

Cardoso was out because of her ejection for fighting in the SEC tournament final. She’ll return for Sunday’s round-of-32 game against No. 8 North Carolina. Forward Bree Hall was also held out Friday, a team spokesperson told the Associated Press, for “precautionary reasons.”

“Not concerned,” Staley said. “It’s just something that we felt we had enough to go into this game and win, and then we’ll see how she feels tomorrow. But she was fine.”