The Riverside Press-Enterprise
South Carolina's Staley shares NCAA Tournament triumph with loyal fans
Dawn Staley proudly marched her latest NCAA championship trophy in front of the wild, cheering “FAMS” who’ve supported her throughout South Carolina’s rise from SEC alsoran to three-time tournament winners.
About 7,500 fans, who Staley and her team have called “FAMS,” for the love and loyalty they bring, turned out — and amid an eclipse — to celebrate the Gamecocks’ 87-75 victory over Iowa to win the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s an incredible honor to come back to this,” Staley said Monday, a day after the victory that finished off a 38-0 season. “To come back to you.”
It has been a slow burn to fill the 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena. The Gamecocks averaged 6,371 fans in 2013-14 when they went 30-5 and lost in the Sweet 16. A season later, Staley signed Columbia area standout A’ja Wilson and the crowds and titles followed. Wilson was the centerpiece of a group that won four straight Southeastern Conference tournament titles and the NCAA crown in 2017. And all the while attendance boomed.
South Carolina drew an average of 16,067 this season to lead the country, the 10th straight year it has led the way in average attendance. Staley has taken care to shout out her fanbase throughout the team’s championship run.
“That’s because Dawn Staley was raised right,” said Lloyd Yaun of Graniteville.
The team has fed off their fans, winning their last 60 games at home and going 77-1 there the past five seasons.
“They appreciate what you bring to this building,” South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said. “They never, ever lose when you’re here.”
• South Carolina was the unanimous No. 1 in the final AP women’s basketball poll, getting all 35 first-place votes. Iowa was second, follwed by Uconn, North Carolina State, and USC in the top 5. UCLA finished ranked 10th.
• Sunday’s women’s title game had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics. The audience numbers are expected to increase when Nielsen releases its final numbers on Tuesday.
NAIA approves ban of transgender athletes
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports at its 241 mostly small colleges across the country.
The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the
policy in a 20-0 vote at its annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes competing in more than 25 sports, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.
According to the transgender participation policy, which goes into effect in August, all athletes may participate in Naia-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women’s sports.
A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in intercollegiate competition.
Korda wins fourth straight LPGA start
Nelly Korda won the Tmobile Match Play on Sunday to become the first LPGA Tour player in 16 years to win four straight starts, taking four of the
first seven holes and going on to beat Leona Maguire 4 and 3 at Shadow Creek in North Las Vegas.
Lorena Ochoa in 2008 was the last player to win four consecutive starts. Korda will try to tie the record of five — set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 and matched by Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05 — in two weeks at the season’s first major, The Chevron Championship.
• Ben Shelton captured his second career ATP Tour title, outlasting defending champion Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to win the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston.
• Dutch cycling star Mathieu Van der Poel broke away with 60 kilometers (37 miles) remaining to win the Paris-roubaix cycling classic for the second straight year with a dominant performance on Sunday. With his archrival Wout van Aert recovering from multiple injuries sustained at the Dwars door Vlaanderen race in late March, Van der Poel dominated the grueling 260 kilometer (161-mile) trek from its start in Compiègne to Roubaix in northern France.