"Take the head of the snake": Dawn Staley details how South Carolina targeted Izzy Higginbottom during Arkansas game

Going into Thursday night's matchup against Arkansas, Dawn Staley had one goal in mind for her team, which is to shut down Razorbacks' Izzy Higginbottom. The senior guard has been excellent all season, averaging 24.1 points — first in the Southeastern Conference.

After failing to slow down UConn's star player Paige Bueckers in their earlier matchup, leading to a Gamecocks loss, Staley knew they had to come up with a game plan to contain Higginbottom and avoid a similar outcome.

"[Higginbottom] was a target on our scouting report, so was [Kiki] Smith, and that didn't work out in our favor," Staley said postgame (up to 1:05). "But if you can disrupt... we wanted to disrupt and not give Higginbottom great looks, just try to make her work for everything.

"Sometimes when you do that, it's somewhat disruptive, and then somebody else ends up having a good night. But if you can take the head of the snake, usually the rest, you can put yourself in a position where you can win a basketball game."

Dawn Staley and No. 6 South Carolina got precisely what they wanted, limiting Higginbottom to just 10 points on 3-of-17 shooting from the field and just 1-of-5 from the three while forcing her into four turnovers.

However, the Gamecocks could not contain Arkansas' sophomore guard, Kiki Smith, who finished with 18 points — tied for the game-high with South Carolina's Joyce Edwards. The game ended in a 95-55 blowout win for Dawn Staley and her team, who improved their overall record to 24-3 with 12-1 in the SEC.

South Carolina heading towards 4th straight SEC regular season title under Dawn Staley

With the convincing home win over Arkansas, South Carolina continues its dominance in the SEC as they push towards their fourth straight SEC regular season crown.

Dawn Staley's Gamecocks have only lost once in conference play — to No. 2 Texas (26-2, 12-1), with whom they share the top spot in the league standings.

And with just three games left in the regular season, both teams are in a good position to potentially share the title, given that they end up with identical conference records.

On paper, neither team seems likely to lose any of its remaining fixtures. Since they each have one SEC loss — against each other — the tiebreaker would not be a factor.

However, with games still left to play, anything can happen. In the event of a tie, the No. 1 seed would be determined by a coin flip on the final day, according to The Post and Courier.