Aleighsa Welch entered the SEC Women's Tournament as South Carolina's fourth-leading scorer.
Sunday, after a 14-point, eight-rebound performance in a 62-46 victory over Tennessee, the senior forward leaves North Little Rock as the conference's tournament MVP.
Welch, 6 feet, averaged 10.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in the Gamecocks' victories against Arkansas, LSU and Tennessee.
"I wasn't expecting to get it," said Welch, who was averaging 8.9 points before the SEC Tournament. "I'm thankful. But I owe a lot of it to my teammates, especially picking me up when I was down when I missed a couple of easy ones. It was a team effort and I just appreciate it."
She had six points and four rebounds against Arkansas in a quarterfinal game Friday before getting 11 points and 10 rebounds against LSU in Saturday's semifinals.
Five of Welch's eight rebounds Sunday came on the offensive end, a point of pride for the Gamecocks' all-time leading rebounder.
"I wanted every rebound that came off the boards, offensively or defensively," Welch said. "I made sure that I attempted to go for every rebound. That's something I just love to do. I knew we needed offensive boards. My goal was just to attack the boards, attack the glass every time a shot went up.
"Offensive rebounds is all about effort."
Lady Volunteers Coach Holly Warlick said Welch deserves a good bit of credit for South Carolina's 38-32 rebounding advantage.
"She's got a passion to rebound and we've got to put a body on her," Warlick said. "We did at times and she got loose at times. She's a tough, tough player to defend and a tough player to keep off the boards."
Attendance
Sunday's SEC women's championship game drew a tournament session-high 5,819 to North Little Rock's Verizon Arena to put the total tournament attendance at 25,821, besting the 2009 tournament that was held in North Little Rock.
The 2009 tournament drew 24,777 to Verizon Arena, which opened in 1999.
The average per game (13 games) in this year's tournament was 1,986 and the session average (seven sessions) was 3,689.
North Little Rock has hosted the SEC Tournament three times before this year -- 2003, 2006 and 2009. The 2003 tournament averaged a then-SEC high 43,642 fans, which has since been surpassed by the 2008 and 2012 tournaments, both in Nashville, Tenn.
Rocky Low
Tennessee's 46 points was its lowest total in an SEC Tournament game.
The Lady Volunteers shot 33.3 percent (18 of 54) from the floor, including 8-of-30 shooting (26.7 percent) in the second half, in its 62-46 loss to South Carolina at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock,
Tennessee's previous SEC Tournament low was 54 against LSU in a 63-54 loss in the 2007 SEC semifinals.
South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley said the Gamecocks' depth allowed them to keep pressure on Tennessee.
"We tried to contest all of their shots," Staley said. "We just tried to make them work extremely hard for everything that they got.
"Fortunately for us, our defense did the job tonight and won us a tournament championship."
Tournament team
South Carolina forward Aleighsa Welch was named the SEC Tournament MVP after her 14-point, 8-rebound performance against Tennessee on Sunday.
Welch's teammate Alaina Coates, Tennessee's Cierra Burdick and Jordan Reynolds, and Kentucky's Makayla Epps made up the five-man all-tournament team.
RPI matters
Tennessee entered Sunday's SEC women's championship game with the nation's top RPI (Ratings Percentage Index).
The Lady Volunteers were 9-3 against ranked teams before Sunday's game, including 5-3 vs. top 10 opponents, which leads all SEC teams. Tennessee defeated Rutgers, Oregon State, Stanford, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
South Carolina was fourth in the RPI. The Gamecocks own Top 25 victories against Duke, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
Noteworthy
• Tennessee was 10-0 as the SEC Tournament's No. 2 seed before Sunday's loss to South Carolina. The Lady Volunteers have won a SEC-high 17 tournament titles.
• Tennessee leads the all-time series with Soot Carolina 45-4.. Two of the Gamecocks' four victories against the Lady Vols have come this season.
• South Carolina is expected to be a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season when the NCAA Tournament field comes out next Monday. The Gamecocks lost to No. 4 seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16 last season in Palo Alto, Calif.
Sports on 03/09/2015