Title contenders have point leads, but no wins
Round 6 in Racing Series set for tonight
South Carolina women beat Stanford 62-53 in Final Four
DALLAS — Allisha Gray scored 18 points, A’ja Wilson had a double-double and South Carolina is going to its first national championship game after beating Stanford 62-53 Friday night in the women’s national semifinals.
Wilson had 13 points and 19 rebounds for the Gamecocks (324), who lost in the semifinal of their only other Final Four appearance two years ago. They went ahead to stay with 13 straight points in the third quarter.
Stanford (32-6) took a big hit when senior guard Karlie Samuelson sprained her right ankle with about 4 1/2 minutes before halftime after the Cardinal had taken an eight-point lead with a 13-1 run.
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, who played for Tara VanDerveer on the U.S. women’s team that won the 1996 Olympic gold medal, won as a coach against the Stanford coach for the first time in six tries.
Staley also made three consecutive Final Four appearances as a player for Virginia from 1990-92.
Saturday night’s racing program at Cocopah Speedway will be a clear cut case of the “haves” and the “have nots.”
The only thing is, the haves are the same drivers as the have nots, as in Brett Simala has the lead in the race to the 2017 Cocopah Speedway Racing Series championship in the IMCA Modified Division, but has not won a feature event, so far.
The same thing goes for Adolfo Noriega. The defending series champion in the IMCA Sport Modified Division has the point lead and has not won a feature event.
And Jim Robinson is in the same boat. The defend-