The South Carolina Gamecocks have been cruising through the regular season and the NCAA Tournament so far. But they had a brief scare on Friday against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Sweet 16.
After building a 22-point lead, South Carolina saw Indiana slice that deficit down to two points in the fourth quarter. While South Carolina allowed Indiana to get back into the game, head coach Dawn Staley was still proud of her team as per Carmine Gemei of FOX Carolina News.
“You don't allow a 3-point shooting team to shoot a barrage of threes and get themselves back into the game and make it a one-possession game,” Staley said. “But we're a young basketball team. They're a seasoned basketball team. That team has been together for a long time, and they know how to win.
“Fortunately for us, we built a big lead and afforded ourselves to allow them to get back in the game. Imagine if it was nip and tuck, and we lose the basketball team. I'm proud of our team. At this part of the year, it's just about winning and advancing, surviving and advancing, and we did that.”
Dawn Staley and South Carolina continue undefeated season
With the win, the Gamecocks advance to the Elite Eight and continued their undefeated year. Last season, South Carolina was also undefeated coming into the NCAA Tournament before they lost to Iowa in the Final Four.
Staley is correct in that South Carolina has a very young team. She lost all of last season's starting five to the WNBA Draft with younger, more inexperienced players taking their place. But the Gamecocks have had strong upperclassmen leadership in the form of WNBA prospects Kamilla Cardoso and Te-Hina Paopao.
As far as how Indiana was able to get back into the game, Staley attributed it to the team taking bad shots and needing to feed the post a little more than they did as per Julia Westerman of WIS News 10.
“We've been a team that we've given up leads because we get so comfortable that we start taking ill-advised shots. And we did that a little bit today in the third and fourth quarters and not being calculating of where we want that ball to go,” Staley said.
“That ball should have touched Kamilla's hands no matter if she shot it, or if she kicked it out. So we wanted to work inside out definitely, and we didn't do that a lot of times in the third and fourth quarters, and it ended up almost biting us in the butt.”
The Gamecocks will now square off against the Oregon State Beavers in the Elite Eight on Sunday with the winner advancing to the Final Four in Cleveland.
It's possible that South Carolina could return essentially the same team for the 2024-25 season. Te-Hina Paopao already announced that she would use her COVID year of extra eligibility and return for one more season. She's expected to be a first-round WNBA Draft pick in 2025.
That leaves the only player that can depart as Kamilla Cardoso. The senior center has not yet announced her future plans, but she could be a lottery pick in the WNBA Draft if she declares this year. She too has one more year of college eligibility.
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