South Carolina smothers Texas
Defensive effort puts Gamecocks into Final Four for third time
Zia Cooke scored 16 points and South Carolina used its stifling defense to advance to the Final Four for the third time, shutting down Texas for a 62-34 victory Tuesday night.
Top-seeded South Carolina blocked 14 shots, nine by Laeticia Amihere, and held No. 6 Texas to 23 percent shooting. The Longhorns were outscored 10-0 in the fourth quarter.
Destanni Henderson and Victaria Saxton each scored 12 for the Gamecocks, and Amihere also had 10 points and eight rebounds.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley ran her championship game record against Texas’ Vic Schaefer to 6-0, dating to when they faced each other in the SEC when Schaefer was at Mississippi State. That includes beating Schaefer in the 2017 national final.
South Carolina (26-4) won the Hemisfair Region to advance to Friday’s national semifinal against No. 1 Stanford, the winner of Tuesday night’s Alamo Region final.
South Carolina jumped out to an 19-point lead in the third quarter, then responded to a Texas run with a burst started by a 3-pointer from Henderson.
Schaefer took the Texas job in April 2020 and coaxed an impressive postseason run out of the Longhorns behind a grinding defense that carried the school to the brink of its first women’s Final Four since 2003. Texas was playing to be just the third No. 6 seed to make the Final Four since Notre Dame in 1997.
But the Longhorns looked tired after tough wins over UCLA and Maryland and may have simply been worn out by the time they matched up with the big and quick Gamecocks, who pressured the ball on the perimeter and denied shots inside.
Audrey Warren led the Longhorns (21-10) with 13 points.
Stanford 78, Louisville 63: Lexie Hull scored 21 points and Stanford reached the Final Four by rallying for a 78-63 victory over Louisville. Next up for the top-seeded Cardinal is South Carolina on Friday night in a rematch of the 2017 national semifinals. Uconn and Arizona meet in the other national semifinal. Ashten Prechtel played a huge role off the bench for the Cardinal, hitting all six of her shots, including three 3-pointers. She finished with 16 points. Kiana Williams added 14.