SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The South Carolina women’s basketball squad is returning to the Final Four for the sixth consecutive year, thereby becoming only the second team in NCAA history to achieve this feat.
The top-seeded Gamecocks triumphed over No. 3 seed TCU with a score of 78-52, signifying their fourth consecutive contest where they overwhelmed their rival by a minimum of 25 points. Prior to Monday’s Elite Eight showdown, the Gamecocks maintained a 135-point advantage over their adversaries, having amassed at least 90 points throughout the initial three rounds—featuring successive 100-point performances in the rounds of 64 and 32.
Despite the match concluding as a decisive victory, South Carolina was compelled to contend with TCU in the early stages. The Horned Frogs commenced the contest with a 6-0 surge, thereby giving the Gamecocks their initial disadvantage of the whole competition. Nevertheless, after trailing 12-4 during the opening five minutes, South Carolina orchestrated a 12-2 run to conclude the quarter.
Towards the close of the second quarter, the Gamecocks mounted another significant surge, besting the Horned Frogs 17-5 to establish a modest lead at halftime.
South Carolina secured a commanding lead in the fourth quarter, where they prevented TCU from scoring for the initial four minutes of the period and executed a 14-0 scoring spree.
Joyce Edwards, the sophomore forward, contributed 11 of her 24 points during the fourth quarter and concluded the match with 12 rebounds. Raven Johnson recorded 10 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Agot Makeer tallied 18 points.
Olivia Miles of TCU registered 18 points and six assists.
Subsequently, the Gamecocks are set to confront UConn in a re-encounter of the previous year’s national championship game, which resulted in a 82-59 loss for the Gamecocks.
This marks the second consecutive campaign that the Final Four will be comprising South Carolina, Texas, UCLA, and UConn. Merely one prior occasion has seen the identical four squads participate in consecutive Final Fours.