Joyce Edwards posted 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists off the bench, and South Carolina moved within one game of becoming the first repeat Women’s NCAA Tournament national champion since 2016 with a 74-57 rout of Texas in a national semifinal on Friday in Tampa, Fla.
South Carolina will face UConn on Sunday after the Huskies beat UCLA 85-51 in the other semifinal. The last repeat Women’s NCAA Tournament champion was UConn during a run of four straight from 2013-16.
“She was due,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said of Edwards.
The standout freshman and South Carolina’s leading scorer at 12.7 points per game entering the night struggled through games of four, six and five points in the Gamecocks’ three previous wins over Duke, Maryland and Indiana.
Edwards came out strong on Friday, buoying South Carolina through the first half with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Te-Hina Paopao also came alive in the second quarter with a pair of 3-pointers.
The No. 1 seeded Gamecocks (35-3) outscored the Longhorns 20-9 in the third quarter, building on their three-point halftime lead. South Carolina scored 11 consecutive points late in the third after producing a 7-0 burst late in the second period.
No. 1 Texas (35-4) could not get the deficit back under 10 points after South Carolina pulled ahead 52-41 on Paopao’s steal and breakaway layup with 3:46 to go in the third quarter.
It was one of two swipes for Paopao, who also scored a team-high 14 points.
“Obviously she can score the ball,” Staley said of Paopao. “Pao chose to come to South Carolina for these moments, but also she knew there was a hole in her defensive game and we were going to force her to play (defense).”
The Gamecocks’ defense allowed them to take control in the second half. They held Texas to 4-for-14 shooting (28.6 percent) in the third, while shooting 9-for-16 (56.3 percent) on the other end.
Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer pointed to his team’s 9-of-30 shooting (30 percent) from the floor in the second as the difference. Schaefer also said the trajectory of the game shifted in the second quarter after Madison Booker picked up her third personal foul with 2:29 remaining.
That’s when South Carolina went on its 7-0 run. The Gamecocks’ advantage reached 20 points down the stretch.
“It’s a hard day. You don’t want it to end. You want to play on Sunday,” said Schaefer, who coached Texas to its first Final Four appearance since 2003. “But we ran into a good team today, and we didn’t play that well.”
Texas’ Jordan Lee led all scorers with 16 points, shooting 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Booker scored 11 points for Texas despite being limited to 24 minutes, and Rori Harmon added eight points and seven rebounds.
The Longhorns were outscored in the paint 40-22 and managed to convert just eight points from 13 South Carolina turnovers.
Bree Hall added 11 points for South Carolina.
–Field Level Media
