Once again, the South Carolina women's basketball team made its tournament game a battle from start to finish, but a big second quarter was enough to give the Gamecocks the 79-63 win over Buffalo in the Sweet 16.
"I'm extremely proud of our players for staying resilient through not playing their best basketball," head coach Dawn Staley said. "But they did enough to win and move on to the Elite Eight."
After ten minutes of play, the Gamecocks had eight turnovers and the Bulls were able to convert 10 points off of them, giving Buffalo a one-point lead. South Carolina finished the game with 26 turnovers, a similar problem it noticed in the first round game against North Carolina A&T.
Staley said after the game that the tempo the Gamecocks were playing at was a big issue in causing those turnovers.
"I thought we just played too fast. I think our team was anxious to play. We've been working on Buffalo for four days...so we just played too fast," Staley said. "It is characteristic of, the last few games in which we've turned the ball over. We've got to figure out a way to limit those turnovers and turn them into, at least, shots at the basket."
Whatever Staley said at the end of the first gave the Gamecocks the spark they needed to fight back and they committed just four turnovers during the second quarter. Alexis Jennings, who scored just two points during the first quarter, finished with 12 points at the half to lead the team. Wilson also found a bit of her rhythm in the second with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The two would end the game leading the team with 20 points each, shooting a combined 93 percent from the free throw line. Wilson finished the game with 13 rebounds while Jennings was second on the team with nine boards.
Buffalo fought back during the third quarter and drew a foul on Wilson with 0.3 seconds left in the quarter to give the Bulls three free throw attempts. Cierra Dillard, who led all scorers at the end of the game with 29 points, sank two of three to make it a seven-point game entering the final ten minutes.
With the season on the line and Buffalo making a comeback, Wilson said the team knew they had to come together and play like themselves.
"It's just us. That's just us. I think we all really came together and said this is us," Wilson said. "Even before the game I told my team losing in the Sweet 16 is not a good feeling and I did not want them to have that feeling so we were going to do whatever we can and whatever we could during the game to make that happen, pull out a win. And I think we all kind of came together and set the tempo and got the momentum back and stayed within our system and we executed pretty well."
The Gamecocks know they have mistakes to fix as they prepare for the Elite Eight. After No. 1 seed UConn's 72-59 win over Duke on Saturday, the Gamecocks will take on the Huskies on Monday at 7 p.m. with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Facing a team that has given the Gamecocks a lot of trouble over the years, Staley said her team needs to start clicking again.
"I don't think we're playing our best basketball. I don't think we're playing as well as we played two weeks ago in the SEC Tournament. I think the long break was really a disadvantage for our team," Staley said. "They look pretty good from a physical standpoint, but from a, just the chemistry and cohesion is not there. It just wasn't there during the season when we played some of those other SEC teams but we found a way to win."