Gamecocks are SEC champs again
NASHVILLE — A’ja Wilson screamed, waved four fingers in the air and danced in front of the University of South Carolina pep band.
Doing something nobody has ever done before deserves a mighty celebration.
Wilson scored 16 points as the No. 8 Gamecocks became the first Southeastern Conference women’s basketball program to win four straight tournament championships, snapping the nation’s longest winning streak at 32 games with a 62-51 upset of No. 2 Mississippi State in Sunday’s SEC final.
And Wilson was on the court for each tournament victory of the unprecedented run. Tennessee with its 17 tourney titles overall won three in a row twice, most recently from 2010 to 2012, but the Lady Volunteers never made the final with a chance at a four-peat.
“It’s a blessing and an honor,” Wilson said as she wore a net around her neck. “The SEC is a great conference, and to make history like that, to be a team that’s gone four times in a row to the championship and won it, it’s a great feeling. … So this has been a great tournament.”
The Gamecocks beat Mississippi State yet again with a title on the line. South Carolina beat the Bulldogs last April for the program’s first national championship, and now the Gamecocks (26-6) have a third straight SEC tournament title at Mississippi State’s expense.
Mississippi State (32-1) had not lost since that national title game, coming into Sunday with the program’s first regular-season championship and hoping a third try at the tournament title would be the charm.
The SEC’s best 3-point shooters struggled outside the arc, and the Bulldogs couldn’t overcome South Carolina’s dominance in the paint with Teaira McCowan limited by foul trouble most of the first half. The Gamecocks held Mississippi State to its fewest points all season.
“Just wasn’t our day offensively,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said. “And it just was really frustrating from an offensive standpoint because it didn’t matter what string we pulled, it just didn’t work.”
Tyasha Harris added 14 points for South Carolina, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan had 13 and Bianca Jackson 11.
Victoria Vivians led Mississippi State with 17 points, and Morgan William had 10. McCowan, who came in averaging 18.1 points per game, was limited to six.
› No. 4 Louisville 74, No. 5 Notre Dame 72 GREENSBORO, N.C. — Asia Durr scored 17 points and Sam Fuehring converted a key threepoint play in the final minute to help the Cardinals win an Atlantic Coast Conference title game between two likely No. 1 seeds for the NCAA tournament.
Arica Carter scored 16 points, Fuehring and Myisha Hines-Allen each finished with 15 and Durr, the league’s player of the year, made four free throws in the final seconds as Louisville (32-2) won the ACC title for the first time since joining the conference four years ago.
Jessica Shepard had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Arike Ogunbowale added 20 points for the second-seeded Fighting Irish (29-3), who failed to win the ACC tournament for the first time since joining the league a year before the Cardinals.
› No. 25 Mercer 68, EAST TENN. STATE 53 ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Mercer senior Kahlia Lawrence already owned three Southern Conference season MVP awards, but now she has a SoCon tournament MVP honor — and, for the first time, the honor of playing in the NCAA tourney.
Lawrence scored 29 points on 10-for-18 shooting, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range, to lead the Bears (30-2) past East Tennessee State University in the SoCon tournament title game at U.S. Cellular Center. The game was tied at 14 after the first period, but Mercer didn’t trail after taking the lead early in the second quarter. The Bears were up 33-23 at halftime and 54-41 entering the fourth.
It was the 27th straight win for Mercer, tying the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s record for consecutive wins by a SoCon program. The Mocs set the mark during the 2003-04 season.
UTC had won five straight SoCon tournament titles, beating Mercer in the championship game the past two years, but the Mocs lost to UNC Greensboro in double overtime during Friday’s quarterfinals. Now the NCAA’s automatic bid for the SoCon champion goes to the streaking Bears, who had never won 30 games in a single season in program history but reached the milestone in their eighth year under coach Susie Gardner.
Alex Williams added 14 points and KeKe Calloway 11 for the Bears, whose only previous appearance in an NCAA tournament was at the Division II level in 1985, and Amanda Thompson had 11 rebounds to go with nine points and five steals.
Second-seeded ETSU (20-11) was led by SoCon freshman of the year Erica Haynes-Overton’s 12 points, while Tianna Tarter and Sadasia Tipps added 10 apiece.