COLUMBIA, SC—South Carolina center Alaina Coates recorded the first triple double in that program's  last 12 years and the  No. 2 ranked Gamecocks overpowered the undersized Winthrop Eagles 86-37 Sunday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena.
 
Winthrop, which has now faced three Top 20 opponents this season, falls to 2-7 while South Carolina moved to 9-0 with its sixth straight win over the Eagles and the Gamecocks extended its home court winning streak to 38 straight. Winthrop's all-time lead in its series against USC has been trimmed to 13-11.
 
Playing without the services of leading scorer A'ja Wilson, a 6-5 sophomore who sat out due to doctor-ordered rest, South Carolina turned to Coates, its 6-4 junior, who finished with career highs in points (29) and blocked shots (10).  She also pulled down 16 rebounds.  
 
Erica Williams led Winthrop with 10 points to extend her streak of consecutive double-figure scoring games to 23.
 
"I told our team after the game to try and see the positives and not get caught up the negatives and don't listen to any negatives," said Winthrop head coach Kevin Cook. "We will live to fight another day and we will play another team of this caliber and we will do well against them.  Today was not that day."
 
South Carolina utilized its size advantage and a hot-shooting performance to take command of the game in the first quarter.  The Gamecocks scored first on an inside bucket by Coates just 24 seconds into the game and Winthrop's Ezinne Mbamalu tied the game at 2-2 with a put back following an offensive rebound a minute later.
 
The Gamecocks then went on a 14-0 run in just two minutes and 49 seconds to go up 16-2 and the rout was on.  Tiffany Mitchell, who finished the game with 12 points, connected on two 3-pointers during that run. 
 
Winthrop's shot attempts were either rushed, altered or blocked early on as the Eagles made 3 of 20 field goals in the first quarter.  The Eagles trailed 26-7 after the first period and were down 47-13 at halftime as Coates outscored Winthrop by herself with 14 first half points.  The Eagles finished the first half hitting 6 of 29 shots (20.7 percent) and had eight of those attempts blocked.  South Carolina was 18 of 28 overall in the first half (64 percent), including 5 of 12 from behind the 3-point arc.
 
After South Carolina had extended its lead to 40 points at 57-17 on a 3-pointer by Tina Roy with 6:32 left in the third quarter, Winthrop had its best stretch of the game offensively as the Eagles scored six unanswered points to make it a 57-23 game.  Sophomore center Ezinne Mbamalu scored inside following a nice feed from Williams and then connected on a 10-foot jumper.  Sophomore guard Jimecheia Banks then hit a turnaround jumper in the lane with 4:14 remaining in the period.
 
South Carolina closed out the third quarter with a 67-27 lead, and then went on a 14-2 run to open the fourth quarter and took its largest lead of the game at 80-29 with 5:52 left in the contest.
 
Winthrop returns to action on Wednesday at 12 noon when it travels to Auburn to take on its second straight SEC foe.  The Eagles upset Auburn 56-54 at home last season.
The game will be televised on the SEC Network and broadcast by 104.1 The Bridge.