Top-seeded Gamecocks hold off rally by Indiana
ALBANY, N.Y. — With her team’s perfect season on the line, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley had total faith that Raven Johnson would make the necessary plays.
The sophomore guard did just that for the NCAA tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, hitting a huge 3-pointer in the final minute to help the Gamecocks remain unbeaten with a 79-75 win over Indiana in a Sweet 16 matchup Friday in the Albany 1 Region.
“I saw Raven’s eyes coming down the stretch as our lead was diminishing, and I knew she wasn’t going to let us lose,” Staley said. “She was going to do something. She had two big baskets.”
Johnson’s 3 came after South Carolina (35-0) nearly blew a 22-point lead over fourth-seeded Indiana (26-6) in the second half. The advantage was down to 74-72 when Staley called a timeout to set up a play that was supposed to go to 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso, who led the team with 22 points. The star center, a former prep standout at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Heights, was being double-teamed when she caught the ball, so she passed it to Johnson for the 3.
“I was open, and all I could think was: ‘Let it go. I don’t want to lose,’” said Johnson, who scored 14 points. “Just going from last year. Nobody can sag off me this year, and I take that very personal. And I get in the gym every day and put up reps and I think that’s where it comes from, the confidence.”
Last season, Iowa sagged off Johnson in a Final Four matchup, switching its defensive focus elsewhere, and the strategy paid off as the Hawkeyes ended South Carolina’s undefeated season. Johnson got in the gym during the offseason and has become a better 3-pointer shooter, hitting 8% more of her attempts from behind the arc this season compared to last.
“I see the work that Raven puts in every single day. Every single day she gets shots up, before or after practice,” Staley said. “They have a quota to meet each and every day. I see that before. I see that after. So I don’t think about last year. I don’t think about any of that when it comes to Raven.”
The inside presence of Cardoso, who also had seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks, was key as usual for the Gamecocks, who outscored the Hoosiers 42-26 in the paint.
South Carolina is three wins away from completing the 10th perfect season in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history. Next up for the Southeastern Conference’s Gamecocks is Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup with third-seeded Oregon State, which knocked off secondseeded Notre Dame earlier Friday.
The Gamecocks, who are seeking the program’s third NCAA title overall and second in three years, had run through their first two games in this year’s tourney, winning by 52 and 47. They faced a much bigger challenge from the Big Ten’s Hoosiers.
South Carolina built a 22-point lead in the third quarter before Indiana got going behind Sydney Parrish, who led the team with 21 points.
The Hoosiers, who were trying to pull off the biggest comeback in NCAA tourney history, got within 74-72 on Mackenzie Holmes’ layup with 1:08 left. That’s when Johnson responded with her 3.
Holmes, who finished with 12 points, then hit another layup to make it 77-74. The Gamecocks hit only two of four free throws in the final 21 seconds to leave the door open for a miraculous comeback, but Indiana couldn’t convert on the offensive end, missing two contested 3-point attempts in the final 15 seconds.
“We’re very disappointed,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “Felt like if we had a few more minutes the outcome would be a little different for us tonight.”
South Carolina led 34-28 midway through the second quarter before going on a 15-4 run to close the half up 49-32. The lead ballooned to 22 points early in the third, but the Hoosiers were within 10 at the end of the period, 65-55. › Oregon State 70, Notre Dame 65 Oregon State’s post players stepped up in a big way, and the Beavers held Notre Dame freshman sensation Hannah Hidalgo in check to advance to a regional final for the first time in six years. It’s the third Elite Eight berth overall for the Pac-12’s Beavers (27-7), who reached the Final Four in 2016 but fell one win short of the national semifinals two years later.
Atlantic Coast Conference tournament champion Notre Dame (28-7) was in the Sweet 16 for the third time in a row but hasn’t advanced beyond that round since finishing as the NCAA runner-up in 2019, which was a year after the Fighting Irish won the program’s second national title.
Oregon State’s sophomore forwards both produced doubledoubles, with 6-3 Timea Gardiner scoring 21 points and pulling down 11 rebounds as 6-4 Raegan Beers went for 18 and 13. They were joined in double-digit scoring by freshman guard Donovyn Hunter with 11 points.
The Beavers shot 60% from the floor while keeping Notre Dame to 36% and outrebounding the Irish 42-24.
“All of us over the spring, over the summer and into this year, we came in with the mindset of understanding what we needed to accomplish defensively in order to win those close games,” Gardiner said. “So this year that core group, we know what it takes now. So we know what it takes to win. We’re obviously doing it, so it’s super fun.”
Sonia Citron scored 22 points and Maddy Westbeld added 19 points Notre Dame, which had won 11 games in a row since a 16-point loss to North Carolina State in mid-February.
Hidalgo, a 5-6 guard who had averaged 22.9 points this season, shot 4-for-17 as she was held to 10 points, matching her season low. She also missed close to four minutes at the start of the second quarter after officials ordered her to remove a stud from her nose. NCAA women’s basketball Rule 1-25.7 says no jewelry is permitted to be worn during games, but Irish coach Niele Ivey said Hidalgo had played with the piercing in all season.
Oregon State led by a point at halftime, then opened the third quarter on an 11-2 run that forced an Irish timeout. Notre Dame rallied to grab a 59-57 lead with just more than four minutes left in the game, but a 3-pointer from Hunter at the 2:51 mark put Oregon State back in front for good.
Notre Dame has been using a six-player rotation since losing 6-4 forward Kylee Watson to an ACL tear in the ACC semifinals, and Oregon State capitalized on its height advantage early, throwing the ball into the paint as Beers and Gardiner combined for 14 of the 17 first-quarter points scored by the Beavers.
PORTLAND 4 REGION
› N.C. State 77, Stanford 67 PORTLAND, Ore. — Aziaha James had 29 points to help third-seeded N.C. State (30-6) earn the program’s third trip to the Elite Eight with a victory over second-seeded Stanford (30-6) on Friday night.
Saniya Rivers added 13 points and seven rebounds for the ACC’s Wolfpack, who fell behind by 10 points but rallied in the third quarter and led by as many as 15 in the fourth quarter. Chattanooga native Madison Hayes, a former East Hamilton standout and a starter for the team, had 10 rebounds, seven points, three assists and a steal.
N.C. State plays again Sunday in a regional final versus the winner of Friday’s late Sweet 16 pairing between topseeded Texas and fourth-seeded Gonzaga.
AP All-American Cameron Brink fouled out with 8:10 left as she finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks in her final game for Stanford. Kiki Iriafen led the Cardinal with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
Stanford, which is leaving the Pac-12 to join the ACC next season, was vying for its 23rd appearance in the Elite Eight.
N.C. State went on a 13-2 third quarter run capped by a pair of 3-pointers from James to go up 49-45. The Wolfpack led 55-47 going into the fourth, and James opened the final period with a 3-pointer that beat the shot clock.
Brink, who is from the Portland area, has already announced that she’s making herself eligible for next month’s WNBA draft, although she had one more season of college eligibility remaining.