By Marlee Ressa | @marleeressa
Sports Capital Journalism Program
TAMPA – South Carolina continued its dominance over Texas, defeating the Longhorns 74-57 in a semifinal of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and earning the chance to play for a second title in as many seasons and a third in four years.
When the Gamecocks (35-3) meet UConn on Sunday afternoon, they will attempt to become the first repeat champion since the Huskies won four consecutive titles from 2013-16.
Te-Hina Paopao led the Gamecocks with 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting. Joyce Edwards scored 13, with 11 rebounds and six assists. Texas (35-4) was led by Jordan Lee, who scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Texas sophomore forward Madison Booker was held to 11 points, 5.5 below her average, because of foul trouble. When Booker was charged with three in the first half the Gamecocks capitalized.
“It had a huge impact,” said PaoPao. “When you got a great player like that, you just gotta keep going, keep going at her because you know you got get them in foul trouble which makes them, you know, change the whole aspect of the game.”
After leading 38-35 at halftime, South Carolina turned up the heat on the Longhorns. “We only scored nine points,” Texas guard Rori Harmon stated sarcastically when asked what happened in the third quarter, “and they scored twenty… so that’s kind of what went wrong.”
The Gamecocks were also able to control the flow of the game by committing three turnovers in the second half.
By the fourth quarter, Texas struggled to find the basket, making just 31.3% of its shots in the period. The pressure was building, and it started to feel like déjà vu from the Southeastern Conference tournament championship. As South Carolina kept adding to its score, Texas just couldn’t keep up.
Three of the four Texas losses this season were against South Carolina. “Those three games being to them,” remarked senior guard Shay Holle, “I wouldn’t let that define our whole year at all.”
Harmon added, “We only lost to two people, two teams… that in itself shows how hard we can push and how great we are through adversity as a team.”
With so many graduating seniors, Texas coach Vic Schaefer knows that the end of their season comes with many goodbyes. “You can replace the position,” Schaefer said, “but you can’t replace the player.”
There may be goodbyes to the seniors, but we haven’t seen the last of Texas in the NCAA tournament. Their coach knows that everything that happened this year is for a reason. “I know there is a bigger plan… I’m not real fond of it right now,” joked Schaefer, “but I know there is a bigger plan, and I’m good with it.”
