By james art 
COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – South Carolina once again showed who is in charge of the Southeastern Conference.
The #2 Gamecocks (19-1, 7-0 Sec) got 14 points from Joyce Edwards and used their trademark lockdown defense to end LSU’s perfect start to the season with a 66-56 victory on Friday night.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever coached against a team that has 10 McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster,” Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said. “How do you even keep 10 on the list?”
Having a run like this certainly helps. South Carolina continued its dominance of the league—it has won four of the last five SEC Tournament titles—with its 54th straight regular-season victory in conference play.
Against LSU (20-1, 5-1), eight Gamecocks players logged at least 15 minutes. Sania Feigin, a two-time national champion, had 12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
South Carolina has won 13 straight since its lone loss in November, 77-62 to #1 UCLA. Seven of those wins have come against ranked opponents.
Bree Hall, a senior recruited to Fagin’s class prior to the 2021-22 season, said she and her teammates heard a lot on social media questioning the Gamecocks and whether they could hold their own against the undefeated Tigers.
“Things like this fuel us,” Hall said.
The win was LSU’s 17th straight and fifth straight since Mulkey took over as Tigers coach four seasons ago.
All of those games were filled with drama, most notably South Carolina’s 79-72 win over LSU to win the SEC Tournament last March.
Controversy in the final quarter of that game when Flau’jae Johnson was knocked to the floor by South Carolina’s 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso. Johnson’s brother, Tyrone Milton, was arrested after he showed up to court and charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct.
His trial, according to a spokesman for the Greenville Police Department, is still pending.
There was no bad blood in this one, just some hard hitting when Mulkey took the court.
Staley said the LSU win was essential for South Carolina in its bid for its second straight national title and third in four seasons. Beating the Tigers gives the Gamecocks every edge in the SEC tiebreaker and improves their chances for another high seed in the NCAA Tournament in two months.
“We needed to win this game,” she said.
South Carolina took control in the third quarter when it held LSU to 5-for-20 shooting and turned a close contest into a double-digit lead.
Fourth-year Raven Johnson said the team kicked things into gear when one of its expected stars in Ashlyn Watkins was lost for the year with a knee injury in January. That UCLA, Johnson continued, was also an awakening.
“We knew we couldn’t come back the same as last year, that we had to bring something else to the table because our teams are coming to us,” she said. “I think that loss helped.”