No. 1 seed South Carolina women's basketball won its Elite Eight matchup with No. 3 seed TCU Horned Frogs 78-52 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California on Monday night to advance to its sixth consecutive Final Four.
It was TCU that got off to a fast start, with a 6-0 run in the first three minutes. Senior guard Raven Johnson finally got South Carolina on the board with a midrange jumper three minutes and change into the first quarter.
TCU did well crowding the paint and forcing contested jumpers from inside the arc, and senior guard Olivia Miles and graduate forward Marta Suarez were active early in the game on offense, with 12 combined first-quarter points.
Despite the hot start, the biggest lead the Horned Frogs could muster by the halfway point of the first quarter was 8 points, with a 12-4 lead.
In reply, the Gamecocks cut into the lead. A layup from senior center Madina Okot cut the lead to 6 points, and sophomore forward Joyce Edwards took control on both ends with 6 points, three blocks and three offensive rebounds. In addition, freshman guard Agot Makeer provided a spark from the bench with 4 first-quarter points.
South Carolina ended the last three minutes of the first quarter on an 8-0 run that gave the team its first lead of the game at 16-14.
After trading baskets early in the second quarter, South Carolina and TCU traded runs. TCU started off with two 3-pointers — one by junior guard Donovyn Hunter and another by Miles to give TCU its lead back at 22-18 with 7:33 left in the quarter.
Makeer made a 3-pointer in response, and Edwards made three layups to lead a 9-0 run that gave South Carolina a 27-22 advantage with 3:59 left to play.
Layups from sophomore center Clara Silva and senior guard Taylor Bigby cut the lead to 1 point, but two Raven Johnson 3-pointers ballooned the lead back to 7, with the Gamecocks leading 33-26 with 1:20 left in the first half. In the final 30 seconds, Miles made a free throw, and a jumper from Edwards brought the halftime score to 35-27 in favor of the Gamecocks.
The third quarter was a perfectly even one, with both teams scoring 14 points. Miles scored 7 points for the Horned Frogs and assisted a Hunter layup and a Bigby 3-point shot.
South Carolina primarily relied on the 5 points and assist from Makeer and 4 points on free throws from Edwards to navigate the competitive third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Gamecocks pulled away, having ground down a TCU team that had four starters play 35 minutes or more.
Junior guard Tessa Johnson scored 11 points and was 3/3 from the 3-point line, Makeer had 6 points and Edwards had 6 points to close out the final frame and expand South Carolina's advantage past 20 points.
Tessa Johnson's 11 points meant that she surpassed the 8 points she needed to reach 1,000 career points, and Makeer's 18 total points on the night was a career high, adding personal milestones to the team's success.
Sophomore guard Maddy McDaniel insisted on three baskets and scored one of her own in the fourth quarter, as South Carolina's depth proved to be too much for the Horned Frogs.
Freshman forward Alicia Tournebize scored the last basket of the game with 18 seconds left to get to the final score of 78-52.
What's next?
On April 3 at 7 p.m., South Carolina will face UConn in the Final Four at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The first tip off is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.