No. 1 South Carolina won “The Battle for SC,” defeating No. 3 USC 89-85 on Sunday in Greenville.
The Gamecocks took a 49-45 lead into halftime. A Watkins layup pulled the Trojans to within three points midway through the third quarter, but South Carolina outscored USC 12-5 over the ensuing three minutes to go ahead 67-57.
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Baskets by Laura Williams and Saniyah Hall cut USC’s deficit to six points going into the fourth quarter. During the next three minutes, the Trojans trimmed South Carolina’s lead to 74-72 with Watkins hitting four free throws. However, the Gamecocks scored the next six points to restore their advantage to eight points at the five-minute mark.
An 10-1 surge by USC in the final two minutes, capped by a Watkins jumper, trimmed South Carolina’s lead to 87-85 with 42 seconds remaining in regulation. Coming out of a timeout, Jordan Lee turned it over for the Gamecocks but she recovered down the court to block a layup attempt by Watkins.
USC was initially ruled to have possession after Lee’s block, but South Carolina challenged the call and replay determined that the ball went off Watkins with 15.6 seconds left, depriving the Trojans an opportunity to tie the score or take the lead.
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In last year’s first battle between “SC” programs, the Gamecocks defeated the Trojans 69-52 in an early-season matchup in Los Angeles. The two schools faced each other again in the NCAA tournament, with South Carolina winning the second-round matchup 101-61. Watkins did not play in either game, recovering from a torn right ACL.
The branding “Battle for SC”
The “battle for SC” between the University of Southern California and the University of South Carolina dates back to 2008. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Southern Cal in a trademark dispute over interlocking “SC” logos.
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South Carolina appealed the ruling, which was taken all the way to the Supreme Court. But the nation’s high court upheld the ruling for the Trojans. However, the Gamecocks returned to using the “USC” acronym for the program’s branding in 2022 after going with “UofSC” for three years.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
