South Carolina moved one step closer to its goal of winning a national championship Sunday night in its last game at Colonial Life Arena for the season.
The top-seeded Gamecocks manhandled eighth-seeded Syracuse, winning 97-68 in the second round of the NCAA tournament in front of 10,485 spectators and will now move on to the Sweet 16 for the third time under head coach Dawn Staley.
"I thought we came out ready to play and take on a very good Syracuse basketball team," Staley said. "And I just thought our players had a certain determination to get it done."
Before the game, the big question was whether or not Syracuse would be able to clog the paint and make South Carolina earn its points from the outside. As expected, the Orange packed in its defense and left the perimeter open. South Carolina made them pay.
Led by junior guard Asia Dozier’s impressive three-point shooting, South Carolina’s early success from outside forced Syracuse to extend its defense, exposing the inside. The Gamecocks exploited that and would go on to score 42 points in the paint. As a team, South Carolina shot 55 percent from the field in one of its most efficient offensive performances of the season.
"I would say it's our most complete win," senior forward Aleighsa Welch said of her last game at Colonial Life Arena. "We played a really good game, and we said in the locker room we played some of our best basketball at the best time of the season."
South Carolina's defense made things tough for Syracuse, especially in the first half. Freshman guard Alexis Peterson led Syracuse with 23 points and junior guard Cornelia Fondren added 16, but the rest of the Orange added just 29 points.
South Carolina’s impressive performance shooting the ball, coupled with Syracuse’s ineptness when trying to score, made for a relatively easy victory for the Gamecocks.
South Carolina led 8-5 early on in the first half, but a three-pointer by Dozier started a 42-20 run for the Gamecocks to end the half. South Carolina took a 28-point lead to halftime, a deficit far too large for Syracuse to overcome.
While South Carolina had to claw from behind to win 67-63 against Syracuse in November, Staley’s team put together a much more complete performance this time around.
Junior guard Tiffany Mitchell and sophomore center Alaina Coates each led South Carolina with 14 points. Welch and freshman forward A’ja Wilson added 13 points each, as well.
The Gamecocks had six players score in double-figures and the South Carolina bench outscored Syracuse’s reserves 51-11.
Moving forward, South Carolina will find out Monday night which team it will face on Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina, after forth-seeded North Carolina plays fifth-seeded Ohio State.
North Carolina defeated South Carolina twice last season, with one of the losses ending South Carolina’s season.
Which team would the Gamecocks prefer to face? Welch doesn't care, personally.
"We always say, whoever we face, it's an opponent in the way of our main goal," Welch said. "So, we just take whoever comes to us."