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Why Dawn Staley said Alicia Tournebize 'played inspired' vs Texas in SEC Tournament final
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- Why Dawn Staley said Alicia Tournebize 'played inspired' vs Texas in SEC Tournament final
GREENVILLE - South Carolina women's basketball fell short of its fourth straight SEC Tournament championship.
The No. 1 seed Gamecocks (31-3) lost 78-61 to No. 3 seed Texas (31-3) at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 8. The Longhorns started the game on a 14-0 run and South Carolina never recovered.
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A bright spot in the loss was freshman Alicia Tournebize . The 6-foot-7 forward from France played 19 minutes and had six points on 3-for-5 shooting. She led the team with a season-high seven rebounds.
"I told our team I thought we got stronger if we could get Ali to play the way she did. She played inspired," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. "Not playing yesterday (vs LSU ) makes her think about the things she needs to do to play. If she can give us that – she's got seven rebounds on a great rebounding team like Texas . She held her own defensively. So it was pretty good and promising to know that."
Tournebize didn't miss a single shot inside the arc, with her only misses in the game from 3-point range. She hit two huge shots in the third quarter, and the potential for Tournebize offensively was obvious. She also drew four fouls in a physical matchup with Texas.
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"We needed scoring. We know Ali can score the basketball. I thought she did a pretty good job," Staley said. "I think we should probably have gotten her the ball a little bit more in the block and let her go to work. But we made a step forward in our journey to win a national championship. Somebody like her will add to the depth that we need to make this run."
"I just took what the game gave me and tried to get things done," Tournebize said.
Part of Tournebize's uptick in minutes in a big game was starting center Madina Okot 's performance. The 6-foot-6 senior was 0-for-1 from the field with three rebounds, a steal, two turnovers and a foul in 13 minutes in the first half. Okot ended the game with two points on 1-for-4 shooting with five rebounds, one block, one steal and three turnovers in 23 minutes.
Okot averages 13.4 points and leads the SEC with 10.9 rebounds.
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Tournebize, 18, enrolled early this season, arriving in Columbia on Jan. 1. She made her debut for the Gamecocks against Texas on Jan. 15 and is averaging four points, 2.4 rebounds and 11.9 minutes while shooting 43.1% from the field and 44.4% on 3-pointers.
Tournebize had a season-high nine points in the overtime loss to Oklahoma on Jan. 22, then had back-to-back eight point games against Mississippi State and Tennessee to start February.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Why Alicia Tournebize played so much for South Carolina vs Texas
