SACRAMENTO, Calif. — South Carolina, no stranger to cutting down the nets after the third weekend of the NCAA tournament, is headed to its sixth consecutive Final Four after beating TCU 78-52 in the Elite Eight on Monday.
The Gamecocks are just the second team in NCAA history to reach six straight Final Fours, but coach Dawn Staley — who also has led the team to three national championships — said this moment never loses its magic.
“It doesn’t feel [ordinary] because of all the work that it requires to get to this place. It’s a lot,” Staley said. “People don’t see what actually happens to get a team and a program up for the challenges of a season and get to the Final Four.”
While South Carolina has become one of the powerhouses in college basketball, this iteration of the Gamecocks is new. They added Ta’Niya Latson to the backcourt and Madina Okot for more depth at center. Agot Makeer arrived as a highly touted freshman. They also lost several key players to other schools and the WNBA. Senior guard Raven Johnson is the only one on the roster who has experienced the Final Four every year of her collegiate career.
“There was a core that was a part of the last, probably, five years,” Staley said. “We just lost the core of our team.
“So, I’m just really proud of our players for being able to overcome all the things that come with the rigors of a season.”
While the Gamecocks look at themselves as a less experienced team in that sense, they have been dominant so far. They scored at least 90 points in the first three games of the tournament — including 100 points in the rounds of 64 and 32 — and have a plus-161 point differential over their opponents. That’s the fourth-largest point margin heading into the Final Four in NCAA history.
Up until Monday, they had yet to trail in this year’s tourney. But TCU threw the first punch, jumping out to a 6-0 lead. Big runs at the ends of the first and second quarters gave South Carolina a seven-point lead at halftime, but it wasn’t the overpowering performance the Gamecocks had become accustomed to.
“The mentality has to be different,” South Carolina sophomore forward Joyce Edwards said about fighting back from a deficit. “When you’re in an uphill battle, you’re always fighting. Everything — you’re in a state where every possession matters, every little thing matters.”
Holding onto an eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, Edwards said Latson told her teammates in the huddle they would be up by 20 at the five-minute mark of the period.
“That’s what we did,” Edwards said. “I feel like our defense got more intense. And defense turned into offense and we were able to get some transition buckets. And it just went up from there.”
The Gamecocks opened the fourth with a 14-0 run. By the seven-minute mark, they led by 20.
Edwards registered game highs with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Makeer added 18 points, while Raven Johnson finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Tessa Johnson scored all 11 of her points in the fourth quarter.
“Coach always said the Elite Eight is going to be one of the hardest games in the tournament,” Edwards said. “But it just shows us our resilience, our determination, our togetherness, and I feel all that is going to help build momentum into the Final Four.”
The Gamecocks will face UConn in the national semifinals in Phoenix on Friday. It will be a rematch of last year’s championship game that saw the Huskies win 82-59.
“The feeling of losing was not good last year,” Tessa Johnson said. “But this is a whole new year. A whole new team. Both teams are new. UConn is different from last year. We are different from last year. So, it’s going to be a good game.”
With the Gamecocks joining UConn, UCLA and Texas — all No. 1 seeds — to round out the Final Four, this is just the second time in NCAA history that the same four teams have competed in back-to-back Final Fours (1995 and 1996).
