South Carolina guard Bree Hall drives to the basket in the Gamecocks 74-57 victory over Texas in the national semifinals game at Amalie Arena in Tampa. Photo by Glenn Sattell/Sportspage Magazine
The South Carolina Gamecocks steamrolled over the Texas Longhorns, 74-57, in front of an announced crowd of 19,731 at Tampa, Florida’s Amalie Arena Friday night for the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Semifinal. The game pitted the Gamecocks, No. 1 seed from the Birmingham 2 region against the No. 1 seed from the Birmingham 3 region, Texas Longhorns.
It was the Longhorns who opened the game on a 10-2 run. Texas forward Taylor Jones made two free throws for the game’s first points after getting fouled by South Carolina forward Chloe Kitts. Madison Booker, the Longhorns forward, made two jump shots, guard Rori Harmon made one, and guard Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda made a layup. Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao made a layup in response. Texas led 10-2 with 6:37 remaining in the first quarter.
During the next three minute stretch, Gamecocks forward Sania Feagin made a jump shot but Texas’s Booker picked up two quick fouls, sending forward Joyce Edwards and guard Tessa Johnson to the free throw line. A shooting foul on Mwenentanda put South Carolina forward Maryam Dauda on the line, who made one of two free throws. After Harmon and Gamecocks guard MiLaysia Fulwiley exchanged baskets, Texas led 14-11 with 2:29 left in the opening frame.
The Longhorns managed to stay one step ahead of the Gamecocks. Fulwiley made a three-pointer to pull within one point, and Mwenentanda’s layup put the Longhorns back up by three. Edwards scored a layup. Longhorns center Kyla Oldacre made two free throws after getting fouled by Dauda. Edwards scored another free throw and the quarter ended with the Longhorns leading 19-18.
It didn’t help the Longhorns cause that Booker subbed out with 3:04 remaining in the first quarter after picking up her second foul. She didn’t re-enter the game until midway through the second quarter, at the 5:01 mark. In between Booker’s appearances, the Gamecocks caught up to the Longhorns and then exchanged baskets and leads.
Paopao hit a three-pointer to start the second quarter scoring and gave South Carolina a two-point lead, but it was answered by a trey from guard Jordan Lee, on her second try, to reclaim the Longhorns lead.
The lead went back to the Gamecocks when lee fouled Edwards, who made two free throws. Feagin added a layup to extend the lead to three points, but Lee answered with a jumper. Fulwiley made a jumper to get the lead back to three, and again Lee hit a midrange jumper to pull it back to a single point. It was 27-26 in favor of South Carolina with 5:22 left until halftime. Booker reentered the game for Texas at the next clock stoppage, a turnover by Feagin.
It’s a scramble for a loose ball during South Carolina’s 74-57 national semifinals victory over Texas. Photo by Glenn Sattell/Sportspage Magazine
Texas was able to gain a little ground with Booker back on the floor and they were able to build a small three-point lead on a layup from Jones. However, Gamecocks guard Bree Hall was a disruptor. She made a fast break layup, fouled Booker, who made one of two free throws, and then converted another layup into points. Booker picked up her third foul during this time, the first time in her career with three fouls in the first half, and went back to the bench. South Carolina went on a 9-1 run until Jones fouled Mwenentanda with one second left. She made both free throws to give the Gamecocks the 38-35 lead at the half.
Bree Hall continued to have the hot hand in the third quarter as she scored five points in a 7-2 South Carolina run to provide a small cushion. Booker and Harmon each scored to make it 47-41 in favor of the Gamecocks with 4:54 left in the third.
Then South Carolina engaged the steamroller.
Edwards scored a layup. Paopao made one of two free throws after getting fouled by Harmon, and then stole a pass intended for Booker at midcourt for a fast break layup. Edwards made another layup, and guard Tessa Johnson made two jump shots to make it an 11-0 run. Lee broke the run with a three-pointer, making the score 58-44 at the end of the third quarter. The Gamecocks outscored the Longhorns 20-9 in the frame.
Mwenentanda made one of two free throws after getting fouled by Kitts, and then Lee hit a three-pointer. The 14 point Gamecocks lead went down to 10. Then Paopao answered with a three-pointer and Edwards made one of two free throws after getting fouled by Oldacre. The margin went right back up to 14 points again and now there were three fewer minutes on the clock. South Carolina led 62-48 with 7:01 left on the clock.
South Carolina took a timeout with 7:10 remaining, which took away the under five minute media timeout. With Texas needing to make up two points in every minute left to play, the Gamecocks switched their strategy to making the Longhorns burn energy while they burn the clock.
South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards eyes the basket with Texas forward Madison Booker defending. Photo by Glenn Sattell/Sportspage Magazine
After every possession where Texas scored, South Carolina took their time and matched them basket for basket. Oldacre made a jump shot and guard Raven Johnson answered it. Harmon made a jump shot and Tessa Johnson answered with a three pointer. No matter what the Longhorns did, it was never been good enough.
The Longhorns took a timeout with 3:07 remaining while behind by 17 points. There was no more fight left in them. Mwenentanda and Harmon came out of the game Bryanna Preston and Justice Carlton entered the game to give them a taste of the Final Four. Jordana Codio came in the game a minute and a half later. The Longhorns surrendered.
The South Carolina fans in the building began cheering loudly with 2:05 remaining knowing that victory would be secured with 125 more ticks of the clock.
Longhorns guard Codio hit a three-pointer with ten seconds remaining in the contest, her only points of the game came in her 1:47 of play. When the final buzzer sounded, the Gamecocks were on top 74-57 and have earned another trip to the NCAA National Championship game.
South Carolina went 29-for-57 (50.88 percent) from the field; 7-for-11 (63.64 percent) from three-point range; and 9-for-12 (75.00 percent) from the free throw line.
“Just tip our hats to Texas. We beat ourselves up in our league. We do a great job at positioning ourselves to represent the SEC on the biggest stage of our game. And it’s unfortunate that someone had to take a loss, but I’m glad that the SEC is represented in the national championship game,” said Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley.
Texas was 22-for-56 (39.29 percent) from the field; 4-for-10 (40.00 percent) from three-point range; and 9-for-12 (75.00 percent) from the charity stripe.
South Carolina forward Chloe Kitts gets a hand in the face of Texas guard Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda in Friday’s national semifinals game. The Gamecocks advance to the championship game on Sunday. Photo by Glenn Sattell/Sportspage Magazine
“It’s a hard day. You don’t want it to end. You want to play on Sunday. But we ran into a good team today, and we didn’t play that well. I think you can sum up our issues today with a nine-point third quarter. And we shot 31 and 28 percent in the second half,” said Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer. “And when Booker got in foul trouble in the first half, that seemed to be when things kind of changed a little bit. It is what it is.”
“But I couldn’t be more proud of a group of young ladies. They have represented our university with integrity and class. Their commitment, each of these three – if you were to come to a practice, you better get there an hour early because you’re going to see all three of them,” he added.
The Gamecocks were led by 14 points from Te-Hino Paopao. Bree Hall added 11 points, and Joyce Edwards contributed 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the effort.
“We’ve been in those situations before, slow starts. We knew how to bounce back. We’re a resilient team. Especially in the tournament, we had a lot of close games. It wasn’t a pressure to do anything out of the ordinary. We just knew we just had to keep going,” said Edwards.
The Longhorns were led by 16 points from Jordan Lee. Madison Booker added 11 points while Taylor Jones led Texas with eight rebounds and Rori Harmon dished a team-high four assists.
“We only scored nine points and they scored 20. So that’s kind of what went wrong. But we let their run accumulate. That’s kind of what we talked about not doing. So I think it was just a bad quarter, like it was the last game. It was just one quarter that we couldn’t put together,” said Harmon. “But, yeah, I’m not even going to lie to you, I don’t remember exactly what happened in the third quarter. I’m just looking at the score. But we couldn’t get enough stops. We could score a few times but we just couldn’t get enough stops.”
The South Carolina Gamecocks will face the winner of the UConn vs UCLA semifinal on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET at Tampa’s Amalie Arena to crown a national champion.
