Gamecocks advance to Sweet 16 and complete perfect home record

Dawn Staley has talked all year about her team’s defensive identity. About how even if her team’s offensive execution or shooting is off-kilter, her team can still win games so long as the defense travels. It helped out on an uncharacteristically bad shooting day at Alabama in January. It was the reason South Carolina escaped with a seven-point win at Mississippi State despite its only game this season without scoring at least 60 points.

And on Sunday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Colonial Life Arena, it was the reason the Gamecocks woke up from an early slumber to put away South Florida 76-45.

"I mean, that's our staple," Staley said. "We shot 42 percent. We shot 35 percent in the first quarter, 42 in the second, 32 in the thrid. Like, it's hard to win basketball games shooting at that clip. If you don't allow people to score, you've still got a shot."

South Florida (27-7) led 16-12 at the end of the first quarter, an opening frame that featured turnovers from all five South Carolina (34-0) starters and just five made field goals the entire quarter for the home team. But the Gamecocks stayed the course, more specifically on defense. The screws tightened on USF’s crafty guards who were creating space and carving out shots for themselves in the first quarter.

The Bulls only hit three shots in the first eight minutes of the second quarter, and South Carolina made a point of running in transition. Raven Johnson had the keys to the offense as she always does, setting up looks for her teammates both on the fastbreak and in the halfcourt offense. There was a concerted effort early on to get Aliyah Boston involved on the low block, with dribble hand-offs off the right wing leading to post entry attempts. But after two of them went for turnovers early on, Johnson came in and used her crisp, pinpoint control to move the game plan into motion.

Boston got her usual points and rebounds inside — 11 of each — and Laeticia Amihere often became the beneficiary of the increased attention Boston drew. She posted up more herself and more in the second half, scoring all 10 of her points after halftime.

"I just wanted to be physical," Boston said. "Defensively I was just trying to make it hard on Dulcy [Fankam Mendjiadeu]. She's a great post player, very physical, so I just wanted to make my presence known on both offense and defense."

And in what is likely to be her final game at Colonial Life Arena, Zia Cooke shook off her own shaky first half to put in one of the best tournament performances of her career. She scored 21 points, her highest total for an NCAA Tournament game since scoring 25 in the 2021 Final Four game against Stanford. Cooke and Bree Hall, who played 16 minutes off the bench and was instrumental at both ends of the court.

Depth took its toll, as a depleted South Florida team without the bench unit required to handle the top team in the country slowly ran out of gas. The overtime game it played on Friday to get here did not help, and neither did the depth.

"I know they don't get as much of the attention as some of our other players," Staley said. "But I mean, they are highly competitive, and they just have to play a different role for us. But when it comes time to shine, they come through. I thought Breezy had an awesome game today. I thought LA was the energy we needed off teh bench at different times."

Eventually the deep bench got involved and in a moment almost too perfect to script, senior Olivia Thompson buried a 3-pointer on her final possession at Colonial Life Arena to add the most fitting exclamation point possible to a memorable home season.

South Carolina will not be at home but will surely have a hearty home crowd advantage when it is back on the court Saturday. The Gamecocks will take on the winner of tomorrow night’s UCLA vs. Oklahoma game in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, with the tip-off time to be announced later in the week.