South Carolina has finally reached the moment it played for all season: The Gamecocks are in the national championship game, with a chance to make history.
After overcoming another slow start, South Carolina blitzed Texas with a decisively dominant third quarter to put the game out of reach, winning 74-57 on Friday to clinch a spot in the title game Sunday for the third time in the past four years.
South Carolina will attempt to repeat as national champion for the first time in school history. The last team to win back-to-back titles was UConn, which won four straight from 2013 to 2016 and will be the Gamecocks’ opponent in Sunday’s title game. The Huskies routed UCLA 85-51 in Friday’s second semifinal.
The postgame celebration, however, was muted because South Carolina knows the goal has not been reached. Not yet.
“We understand that this is not where we want to be,” guard MiLaysia Fulwiley said. “We want to be cutting down those nets Sunday when it matters. We can’t really get too happy about this win because we’re not there yet.”
South Carolina continued its dominance over Texas, winning the season series 3-1. The past two postseason games between them — the SEC tournament championship and the national semifinal — were not close. Once again, South Carolina broke down the vaunted Texas defense, using transition buckets, points in the paint and timely 3-point shooting to win comfortably.
The win improved South Carolina coach Dawn Staley to 8-0 all time in postseason games against Texas coach Vic Schaefer.
After struggling in the past three rounds of the NCAA tournament, freshman Joyce Edwards showed off what made her such a dynamic player this season, making huge plays on the offensive and defensive ends.
Last week in Birmingham, Alabama, Staley said the Gamecocks would need more production from Edwards to win a national championship and simplified a few things for her to get going.
Whatever the coaches told her worked, as Edwards had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Edwards became the first player in the past 25 years with at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists off the bench in a Final Four.
“I thought she took her time,” Staley said. “She didn’t seem pressed. She uses her athleticism, her strength and her ability to direct line drive. Her game was very lean today, and we love to see that.”
In the previous three games, she had 15 points combined. Her teammates saw a more confident player. Edwards said she felt more definitive and was not second-guessing herself as much.
“It’s comforting just knowing that I was going to bounce back and influence a win,” Edwards said. “I’m happy it was today, and I did just what the game gave me.”
But it might have been senior Te-Hina Paopao who played her best game. Paopao scored 14 points and was 3-of-4 from 3 as Texas struggled to guard her.
The game turned in the third quarter, when South Carolina outscored Texas 20-9, including an 11-0 run late in the quarter that essentially sealed the win.
That might have been the turning point, but the game started to slip away from Texas in the first half when Longhorns forward Madison Booker was in foul trouble early.
South Carolina came out flat to start the game, but its fortunes shifted when Booker, the SEC Player of the Year, picked up her second foul with 3:04 left in the first quarter. Texas had a five-point lead at the time, but South Carolina outscored the Longhorns to close the quarter and take the lead.
Booker returned to the game with five minutes to play in the second quarter, and Texas took back the lead. But with 2:29 to go before halftime, Booker picked up her third foul — the first time in her career she had three fouls in the first half of a game — after Tessa Johnson landed hard on a pass. Booker and Schaefer took issue with the foul, yelling to the officials, “That’s a bad call!” Replay showed minimal contact between the players.
Schaefer said in his postgame news conference that he didn’t think it was a foul, but Booker told ESPN in the locker room that she understood why the officials called it.
“They had to call it,” Booker said. “It kind of looked bad from her angle, so I respect it. That’s a dumb foul. I should have let her catch it. I was going for a gamble.”
That was enough, again, for South Carolina to rally. The Gamecocks turned a two-point deficit into a three-point halftime lead.
Booker played only nine minutes, and her presence was clear. With Booker in the game, Texas had a plus-eight advantage; with Booker on the bench, Texas was minus-11.
“They were just dumb, mental lapses,” Booker said. “That’s not tough. That’s mental toughness right there. You’ve got to know the situation you’re in.”
In the locker room at halftime, Fulwiley said she kept telling her teammates, “Their best player has three fouls. I kept saying, ‘Booker, she’s out of it.’ I know what it’s like to have three fouls. Your mind is everywhere but the game.”
South Carolina continued to build the lead, as the Gamecocks outscored Texas 36-22 in the second half. For Schaefer, who led Texas back to the Final Four for the first time since 2003, another national semifinal appearance ends in heartbreak — as he goes home from the Final Four for the third time in his career without winning the title.
For Staley and her Gamecocks, though, it’s another opportunity to make history.
“I’m glad we jelled together right at this time,” South Carolina guard Bree Hall said. “I feel like a lot of people were doubting us because we weren’t right at the beginning of the tournament. But that’s the beautiful thing about a team like this. We can turn it on immediately. I’m glad we turned it on today.”
