Finally watched the game--not the prettiest of battles but a very solid win nonetheless by SC. The players who most stood out to me are Amihere and Cooke. Amihere looks like she's starting to put it together which is scary for opposing teams considering how quick she is for a 6-3 girl with decent handles. Defensively she is stellar and finished well around the basket last night.
Cooke played with a lot more discipline and control than I'm used to seeing from her. She took a number of tough shots but knocked down most of them and appears to be SC's go to player once again. If she stays grounded and isn't too trigger happy, SC is going to be lethal.
The Boston/Cunane matchup was a big bust, but based on last year's performance I don't think that's a big surprise. Boston is fantastic defensively and very capable offensively, but I don't see her ever becoming a dominant scoring player like A'ja Wilson was for them. Dawn appears to like Boston operating out of the high post, which to her credit I thought she did a fine job there and found Littleton for several open looks, but IMO Boston is far more effective just battling inside and muscling through players for baskets. Boston is maybe the best center to come along since Griner so they need to utilize her more. Cunane just did not look very good last night. I think she scored all of her points going up against Cardoso, I don't believe she scored a point being defended by Boston. Boston looks like she is in better shape than a year ago.
The oversupply of talent is going to be a storyline to watch for SC. I'll be surprised if Dawn can hold on to everyone form the 2021 class like she's been able to from her 2019 class. Limited minutes from Johnson (who Henderson got visibly frustrated with at the end of Q1), limited minutes from Beal and no appearance from Feagin and Rivers. Haven't read the thread but the no show by Rivers was very surprising to me...I thought she'd be a staple as a rotation player. I'm not sure what Cardoso's role is going to be this year for SC. She's a talented kid and moves well at 6-7, but defensively Amihere appears to be better and I'll be surprised if she gets more than 15-18 minutes a night. As someone else noted, I'm surprised she chose SC over the likes of LSU or Texas.
For NC State, they just looked bad IMO. Most of that was SC's stifling defense but a lot of their buckets came on bailout plays from Brown Turner or Perez. Neither Robinson nor Hayes impressed in their debuts. SC is a hard matchup for any team this year but I didn't think NC State competed well.
