South Carolina routs Texas in emphatic run to Final Four
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% 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 the winner of Tuesday night’s Alamo Region final between No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Louisville.
South Carolina ran out to an 19-point lead in the third quarter, then responded to a Texas run with an burst started by a three-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.
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McDonald scored 33 points and the No. 3 seed Wildcats downed the fourthseeded Hoosiers to earn their first trip to the Final Four.
McDonald’s points came in a dizzying display of razzle-dazzle shot making and gutsy leadership in crunch time.
“Just being a little player, I always play with a chip on my shoulder,” said McDonald, who is 5-6 but used her small frame size to slip under and around Indiana defenders or shake them off the dribble.
“A lot of people say I’m too small. I'll never do this, I'll never do that. That drives me,” she said.
The Pac-12 player of the year controlled just about every Arizona possession, hitting the Hoosiers with slashing drives, timely rebounds and even a banked-in three-pointer.
She briefly left the game with a twisted left ankle late in the fourth quarter, but had it taped up and limped back on the court to score six more points.
Arizona (20-5) advanced to Friday’s national semifinal against top-seeded UConn, which reached its 13th consecutive Final Four when it beat No. 2 seed Baylor earlier Monday.