Sessions has eyes on national title in last season as South Carolina’s floor general

Myrtle Beach native Khadijah Sessions and the South Carolina women’s basketball team have been so close to attaining their championship dreams.

First, the Gamecocks fell to North Carolina in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Then, USC lost 66-65 to Notre Dame in the Final Four last season.

The results left Sessions feeling sunken.

But as a stalwart for the Gamecocks, Sessions knew she couldn’t stay down very long. So, she kept her nose to the grindstone, hit the gym and worked on her game over the summer to make sure she won’t feel the same if South Carolina is in a similar situation during her senior year.

“I thought a lot about the ‘what-ifs,’ ” Sessions said Sunday after the Gamecocks’ 88-57 win over East Carolina in the Carolinas Challenge at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. “But, you know, we’ve learned a lot since then. You really learn from losses like that and you just work hard and try to do better next time.”

The work appears to be paying off. Since the loss to the Fighting Irish, the Gamecocks haven’t dropped a game, winning 11 straight to open the season. South Carolina also dons a No. 2 ranking in both the Associated Press and USA Today Top 25 Polls.

“We have that [loss] in the back of our minds,” Sessions said.

PLAYING UNDER STALEY

Playing under a coach of Dawn Staley’s caliber isn’t easy. Staley, perhaps the best point guard in women’s basketball history, even admitted she’s very demanding of her point guards.

But Sessions has fit the mold pretty well.

“She doesn’t get a day off,” Staley said. “I do kind of let off when they become juniors and seniors. But for [Sessions], she wants to be the perfect point guard. When you want that kind of satisfaction, you don’t want your coach to let up on you. You want your coach to tell you exactly how you perfect things out there on the floor. She’s just had an appetite for that, and it’s always good because, as a coach, you want your point guards to play perfectly and she does.”

Sessions is surely appreciative of her mentor.

“She’s the hardest on the point guards. She’s actually really hard on me, because she knows I can take it,” Sessions said. “I’m thankful for everything she does for me and I’m a better point guard since playing for her. She’s a big part of my success on and off the court.”

Sessions was used to being a primary scorer as she averaged nearly 30 points per game in her high school career while leading Myrtle Beach High School to state title victories in her sophomore and junior seasons.

That all changed when Sessions chose to play under Staley. She still has the ability to score in bunches, but that isn’t her role in Staley’s system.

“It was pretty hard for her to adjust, going from a point guard that scored a lot of points to a point guard that had to distribute a little bit more, that had to play on both sides of the ball a little bit more,” Staley said. “But you have to make an adjustment, especially with the type of talent she has around her. A lot of players can’t do that. She was one that could. If she couldn’t cerebrally do that, she might be really unhappy. But when you have someone that can make that adjustment, it’s always a show of their true character and she has been a mainstay for us.”

IMPROVING HER GAME

When Sessions got to Columbia, she immediately clicked with Ieasia Walker, who was also a scoring point guard out of Copiague High School (N.Y.).

“Ieasia helped me tremendously,” Sessions said. “I really started understanding and buying into [Staley’s] system.”

As a senior this season, Sessions has started all 11 games and is averaging 5.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per contest. In 110 games played over her nearly four-year career at South Carolina, Sessions has averaged 5.7 points per game.

However, her value to South Carolina isn’t measurable by statistics, and Staley knows that as well.

“She’s our leader out there on the court,” Staley said. “I know sometimes she gets frustrated with me, but she understands. The frustrations are probably a lot less because she understands what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re focused on.”

There has been a lot of weight on Sessions’ shoulders, but she has handled the workload well and improved along the way.

“It’s a maturity thing,” Sessions said. “I went from scoring to running an offense, and it’s difficult to run a basketball team, especially the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the country.”

Sessions is also making an imprint on her teammates. Gamecocks sophomore A’ja Wilson, who was the No. 1 recruit in the country out of high school, said she has learned tremendously playing with Sessions.

“I love her. She runs our team,” Wilson said. “She keeps us in shape and is always pushing us. She goes hard all the time, 24/7. That’s somebody you need on the team to keep us all rolling. I really love her intensity and her passion for the game. And she’s a really funny person and down to earth; I just love her. I know she’s going to go far in life.”

Staley knows it will be hard to replace a player like Sessions after this season.

“We don’t want to fast forward this to not having her, because we’re going to feel it every day in practice and in every game because she is one that plays hard all the time. That’s what she brings to the table,” Staley said. “She is a cerebral point guard, she loves basketball and she studies it. If she’s your point guard, you now she’s prepared.”

As her time at South Carolina nears an end, Sessions doesn’t want to look too far ahead but she is determined to lead her team in her last shot at a national championship.

“Determination,” Sessions said. “That’s what it’s going to take.”

Good thing Sessions has a lot of it already.

“She is high energy and that is what you want from your point guard,” Staley said. “Her character and her courage is off the charts. She’s also a great dancer, she has a contagious laugh and she’ll be someone that will be sorely missed when she’s not on our roster.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Sessions has eyes on national title in last season as South Carolina’s floor general."