South Carolina missed two layup attempts as time expired in a heartbreaking 66-65 loss to Stanford.

After a foul, Stanford inbounded the ball up one with nine seconds left. Aliyah Boston managed to force a turnover, passing out of a scrum to Brea Beal, streaking up the left side of the court. Beal was able to get up a tough layup with a second left. The layup was off the mark, but Boston grabbed the miss, and went back up. Her try was too strong, bouncing off the back rim and preserving the win for Stanford.

“We went all out and tried to turn them over to see if we could at least get a shot at the basket,” Dawn Staley said. “We got a pretty decent two looks at it. Layup, follow up. I thought about the UConn game, I thought it was gonna be redemption for Aliyah, for that ball to drop in for her, but it wasn’t in the cards for us.”

“I thought Brea had a good look,” said Zia Cooke. “We had a good steal. It was in our hands.”

The Cardinal led by as much as nine in the second half, but the Gamecocks chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter. Destanni Henderson scored nine consecutive points for South Carolina, including a clutch step-back three with 39 seconds left to give the Gamecocks their first lead since 15-13 in the first quarter.

“Destanni is a gamer. She played every minute of this basketball game besides 32 seconds. We need her on the floor. I wish she would have shot a little bit sooner. Shoot in the first half,” Staley said. “I’m glad she shot when she shot. She gave us an opportunity to win, we just couldn’t close the deal.”

After a timeout, Lexie Hall got to the rim, but Boston forced a miss. The rebound bounced out to Haley Jones on the left wing, who was in the right place at the right time. Jones calmly sank an 18-footer for the lead with 32 seconds left.

South Carolina called its final timeout to set up a play, and got the ball inside to Boston, who was quickly triple-teamed. Boston missed a shot attempt but grabbed her own miss. Out of timeouts, South Carolina looked unsure what it wanted to do, leading to a weak pass from Henderson to Boston that Cameron Brink picked off for a turnover. South Carolina had to foul, setting up the final sequence.

South Carolina got out to a blistering start, hitting five of its first seven shots and taking an 11-2 lead. But the Gamecocks cooled off in a big way, going scoreless over the final 4:48 of the first quarter and going nearly nine minutes without a field goal.

“I really think the game was won in the first quarter when we were down, I know at least nine, and came back in that first quarter,” Tara VanDerveer said. “We battled back. I think our team has shown a lot of grit, a lot of heart.”

Zia Cooke, who led all scorers with 25 points, was single-handedly keeping South Carolina in the game. She hit 5-8 from three, finishing the postseason hitting an even 50% from behind the arc.

Cooke’s sharp-shooting was part of a role-reversal for the two teams. During the game, Stanford set a record for three-pointers made in a tournament, but the Cardinal finished just 5-8 from three. Meanwhile South Carolina entered the game having attempted the same number of threes Stanford had made (50) hit 9-20 from behind the arc. It was almost enough to make up for going 7-25 on layups (Stanford was 10-25).

For most of the game Stanford had a rebounding edge, something VanDerveer said was the key to victory. As part of the comeback, South Carolina was plus-seven in the fourth quarter and finished the game plus-four, but Stanford had 24 second-chance points compared to 15 for South Carolina, including the game-winner.

“The difference in the game when you look at the stats was their second chance points,” Staley said. “A big one hurt us at the end of the game.”

Jones sat with foul trouble in the first half, but finished with 24 points in 29 minutes, and shot 11-14. She was a mismatch for South Carolina all game.

“Haley Jones was a problem for us,” Staley said. “She’s a guard, we had our post players match up with her most of the night and she took advantage of that. I thought when they went big and put her at the three it was a perfect matchup for Brea Beal. I thought Brea Beal did a great job on her.”

Henderson had a shaky first half and missed a couple of wide-open threes before settling in and finishing with 18 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Boston was the victim of several questionable calls, but finished with 11 points, 16 rebounds (“tough rebounds” according to Staley), four blocks, and countless other shots altered.

Notes:

South Carolina is now 1-2 in national semifinals (loss to Notre Dame in 2015, beat Stanford in 2017). Both losses were by a score of 66-65, both games were won on a second chance basket in the final minute, and South Carolina had a shot to win at the buzzer both times. … Stanford was 11-12 from the foul line, while South Carolina was 8-12. … South Carolina won the turnover battle by one, but had one less point off turnovers (it all comes down to that final layup). … South Carolina was not outrebounded by an opponent all season. … South Carolina got limited contributions from its role players: Victoria Saxton had a rough game, going scoreless with one rebound and one assist. Laeticia Amihere had six points and six rebounds, but shot 2-8 from the floor and 2-5 from the line. Beal had five points and seven rebounds, but shot 2-9. … Lexie Hull had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Stanford.