Gamecocks speed into first title game
DALLAS — South Carolina was able to speed up the tempo after halftime, A’ja Wilson managed a doubledouble even while almost constantly surrounded by defenders and Dawn Staley finally got a win against Tara VanDerveer.
With all that, the Gamecocks are going to their first national championship game after beating Stanford 62-53 on Friday night in the women’s national semifinals. The Cardinal led early but struggled after star Karlie Samuelson suffered a sprained ankle just before halftime.
“I can’t even put into words the feeling that I have right now. This is a very special team,” said Wilson, who had 13 points and 19 rebounds. “I feel like we’ve earned this spot that we’re in now. We know that we’re not done. But just the feeling of just making history at your school is just something really special.”
Allisha Gray scored 18 points for the Gamecocks ( 32- 4), who lost in the semifinal of their only other Final Four appearance two years ago.
Down 29-20 at halftime, South Carolina went ahead to stay with 13 straight points in the third quarter.
“The second half, I thought we just imposed our will from a defensive standpoint, sped the game up, and got playing at a pace which benefited our style of play,” Staley said.
Stanford ( 32- 6) took a big hit when Samuelson hurt her right ankle with about 4½ minutes left before halftime, after the Cardinal had taken an eight- point lead with a 13-1 run. Samuelson was injured while making a move to the basket, stepping on the foot of South Carolina guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore.
“Karlie twisting her ankle really kind of gave us a tough time,” VanDerveer said. “She has really been the glue to our team all year. She talks, she makes big shots. If someone told me before the game she won’t score, I’d say we’re in trouble. ... Psychologically and physically, it was a challenge.”
Erica McCall had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Cardinal, and Alanna Smith added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The Cardinal, who were down by nine points in the fourth quarter, couldn’t pull off another comeback. They had trailed by at least seven points in six games it has come back to win this season. That includes five of their previous six games, all in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments. They were down by 16 points after halftime in the regional final game against Notre Dame.
Staley had played for VanDerveer on the U.S. women’s team that won the 1996 Olympic gold medal, and was 0-5 as a coach against her.
“You’d think at some point the law of averages should play out,” Staley said, smiling. Staley also made three consecutive Final Four appearances as a player for Virginia from 1990 to ‘92. Two of those included semifinal losses to VanDerveer and the Cardinal on way to their only national titles ( 1990, ‘ 92).
The victory kept up a big run by the South Carolina basketball teams. The men’s team takes on Gonzaga in the Final Four tonight.
Starting pitcher Yianni Pavlopoulos (2-2) tossed five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out three, to lead the Buckeyes (11-14, 1-3) to its first Big Ten win, a 13-2 blowout of Purdue (13-12. 1-3) at Bill Davis Stadium.
Bo Coolen had a pinch-hit, two-run double as part of a fourrun bottom of the eighth inning that sealed the deal for Ohio State, who scored in five separate innings and took advantage of five errors by the Boilermakers. Jacob Barnwell, Zach Ratcliff, Brady Cherry, Dominic Canzone and Noah West also had RBI for the Buckeyes, who led 9-0 after four innings. Noah McGowan scored three runs and had two hits for Ohio State.
Men's tennis
No. 2 Ohio State won its 18th straight Big Ten match with a 7-0 shutout of Iowa at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex. The Buckeyes (19-3, 7-0) lost just one set in sweeping the singles competition. A highlight was Alex Kobelt, whose 6-0, 6-0 win over Tony Leto was the first Big Ten victory of his career.
Women's tennis
With a 6-1 win over Rutgers and a 7-0 shutout of Dayton, No. 2 Ohio State ran its home winning streak to 28 matches at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Staying unbeaten in the Big Ten, the Buckeyes (17-2, 4-0) routed the Scarlet Knights. Singles star Miho Kowase secured the win by beating Chloe Lee 6-2, 6-0. It marked the 100th victory over her OSU career, putting her only behind Kristy Dascoli (104) and Monica Rincon (101) in the program record book.
The sweep of Dayton was punctuated by a three-set singles win by Andrea Ballinger, who bested Mandy Marchant 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3).