COLUMBUS, Ohio -- While much of the rest of the nation played at least one game over the weekend, South Carolina waited three more days to get its new season started.
After waiting about 20 months to play a game for the Gamecocks, that belated tip came not a moment too soon for Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray. Transfers eligible for the first time with their new team, they had a lot of lost shots to make up for.
Behind 37 points from Davis and 24 points from Gray, fourth-ranked South Carolina outlasted No. 7 Ohio State 92-80 for a road win as impressive as any they earned a season ago. By way of Georgia Tech and North Carolina, respectively, Davis and Gray combined to outscore everyone else on their team. The pair scored 61 points and took 39 shots. Their teammates scored 31 points and took 25 shots.
Without them, South Carolina would have lost Monday night.
With them, well, it's fun to imagine what is possible in the months ahead.
"You've got to let the players play," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. "For us, we've never been this fortunate in allowing them to make plays. You don't have to control everything. Once you try and do that, you get in the way of everybody."
For the first time in a long time, there was no Tiffany Mitchell for South Carolina. One of the program's all-time greats moved on to the WNBA after last season. The surprise Monday was that there was barely any A'ja Wilson. Foul trouble limited the All-American to just 16 minutes and five points in a matchup that looked on paper like it would be an early player-of-the-year primary against Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell.
Even when Wilson was on the court, Davis wasted little time scoring her first South Carolina points and the first points of the game. Closing a sizable amount of space in just a few steps, she stole an offensive rebound, relocated to the top of the key and knocked down a jumper. By halftime, she had 15 points -- two more than Mitchell. Gray had 10 points and South Carolina had a 44-39 lead.
"With Wilson getting in foul trouble early, that made it kind of difficult just to get the ball inside," Davis said. "I think tonight was just one of those games where we kind of ended up by ourselves and maybe taking certain shots we wouldn't take in other games."
While it sounds strange to say about a road game against a top-10 opponent, circumstances set up well for Davis. The Buckeyes want any game to have as many possessions as possible, and even on a night when they were dissatisfied with the pace, the tempo suited a scorer. And without Wilson, there was no awkward dance of deference.
As a sophomore at Georgia Tech, Davis averaged 19.2 points per game. She also had the luxury to shoot 36 percent from the floor. She was the offense. She could shoot herself into rhythm. That won't be true at South Carolina, not all the time. Not when Wilson and Alaina Coates need the ball. Not when Gray has a hot hand. But she had leeway to settle in Monday.
"I think we're still learning how to make that fit perfectly," Davis said of finding the balance. "Like I said, tonight was a little different just because of the foul trouble situation. But I think it may be a game-by-game thing. Also in practice, we're figuring out where that works and during what times to take what shots. Obviously we want to start off with our bigs. I think they're some of the best bigs in the country, if not the best. We want to start there and work our way out."
"I think the biggest thing would be it's just hard to focus on any one particular person. ... That's what makes them so dangerous; they've got so many good players." OSU coach Kevin McGuff, on how Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray change South Carolina
But with Wilson again on the bench after picking up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter, Davis took over in a way fans in Columbus are used to seeing -- just not from a visitor. After Mitchell pulled Ohio State within a field goal at 53-51, Davis hit a long jumper. Then after Gray took her turn, Davis hit a 3-pointer. Then another jumper. Then two free throws. The burst pushed the lead to eight points late in the third.
When Ohio State again closed the gap, Gray and Davis again supplied the bulk of a run that put the game away. Davis capped it with a high arcing rainbow of a 3-pointer, exactly the kind of shot Mitchell so often makes on the same court.
Asked if she was generally comfortable with Davis taking 20-plus shots -- South Carolina's single-game high for field goal attempts last season was 19 -- Staley joked that she was but that her assistants cringed when the shots started flying.
"I'm still feeling them out," Staley said of Davis and Gray. "Last year, they practiced with us but they didn't practice within the rotation -- we did it toward the end of the season because we knew we were kind of passing the torch. But I'm still learning. We're not going to be the team we were in the past years where the point guard actually controlled the tempo, everything worked through the point guard. You've got some guards that can initiate the offense and see over defenses, and we're going to play off what they do best and not pigeonhole them into what we look like yesteryear."
It is not as if Davis or Gray took Ohio State by surprise. One of the last games Gray played at North Carolina was a win in the NCAA tournament against the Buckeyes. And there was ample familiarity with Davis, the second-ranked recruit in her class in 2013.
"I've seen them play; I know how good they are," Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. "But I think the biggest thing would be it's just hard to focus on any one particular person. You start focusing on them too much and then A'ja Wilson and Coates are going to have a field day around the basket. That's what makes them so dangerous; they've got so many good players.
"You can start talking about playing zone or double teaming the post or whatever it may be. But basically, essentially, you've got to get down and you've got to guard them and be really sound with what you do. When we weren't sound, Davis and Gray really made us pay."
South Carolina's schedule, with games looming against Louisville, Texas, Duke and UCLA, makes it likely there will be a stumble. Maybe two.
But to add guards like Davis and Gray, not just scorers but big, strong rebounders and passers from the perimeter, to what the Gamecocks already had in the post?
The possibilities are fun to think about.
"Obviously having Ohio State away as your first game back can be tough ..." Davis said of her debut. "I was excited to get here and get on the floor and play with this group of girls."
It was a long time coming. Now the clock is ticking to figure out how to stop them.