South Carolina and Texas come back to it – Orange County Register

Tampa, Florida – Among the many things, the Texas Vic Schaefer coach admires about Dawn Staley de Caroline du Sud, his consistency stands out the most.

The Geno Auriemma d’Uconn established the standard in women’s basketball with 24 final appearances four and 11 national titles, the two discs.

For Schaefer, Staley – who is in his seventh Final Four and who is looking for his fourth title, all in the space of 11 seasons – is as follows.

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for both because they did it at an incredible level,” said Schaefer. “And they are very consistent year after year. In any profession, all of you, no matter what you are doing, that’s what you try. If you are worth your salt, you try to be the best.”

The Longhorns of Schaefer will meet the Gamecocks of Staley Friday evening in the last four of the NCAA female tournament, Texas trying to prevent South Carolina from playing for a second consecutive title.

The teams, both of n ° 1 seeds, know each other well. The national semi-final will be their fourth time to play this season. The South Carolina won two of the three, including last month in the final of the Southeast Conference tournament.

Staley is in the Final Four for the fifth consecutive season while South Carolina has tried to become the first champion repeated since Uconn won four rights from 2013 to 2016.

She was also very successful against Schaefer. When he led to the Mississippi State, his Bulldogs went 0-3 against South Carolina during the 2016-17 season, in particular by losing a Gamecocks team led by A’ja Wilson during the national championship match.

None of this matter for Staley.

“We are not going to count on our success against them to say:” Hey, we beat them, “she said. “I look at the loss of this year and how we can prevent this.”

The team with the Bounding Edge won each of the three previous meetings. Southern Carolina exceeded Texas 42-40 on January 12 and won in an eruption. Texas won the boards in the revenge match, with an advantage of 42-35, and beat the South Carolina by four points. When the Gamecocks exploded the Longhorns of the SEC tournament, South Carolina dropped 37 rebounds in Texas 35.

The most impressive statistic of this game was the way the gamecocks dominated in the post, marking 40 points in the painting and limiting the Longhorns – which are proud of overwhelming opponents near the basket – 18 points from the painting.

Chloe Kitts, a 2-inch 2-inch striker of South Carolina, said that his team was clearly disadvantaged against Texas, which has 6-6 Kyla Oldacre and striker 6-4 Taylor Jones. The rebound could be summed up by the Gamecocks guards.

“It’s a bit difficult to bounce back there with these big girls, so our guard will be super important for us,” said Kitts. “And obviously, the boxing is simply super important. So we just need to really understand.”

Defensive battle

Longhorns have the same goal in each match – keep their opponent at 60 points or less.

For most of the season, it was not too hard. Texas has one of the best defenses in the country, granting around 55 points per match.

Texas has bottled one of the country’s most scores in the country, TCU, in their Elite Eight match. The Longhorns maintained horns at 47 points on Monday, well below the average of the TCU season of 76.7.

“When we play our best defense and keep the scoring fairly low, I think we have a better chance,” said Rori Harmon, the main goalkeeper Rori.

Harmon expects the Friday match to be low, the two teams featuring difficult defenses.

“The name of the game is fair that will earn it more on the biggest scene in which we are at the moment,” said Harmon, “and who will be more difficult and bring the most energy.”

Gang

The southern Carolina players were nicknamed after seeing Dijonai Carrington, who plays for the WNBA Dallas wings, playing a defensive game in a game, then simulating a seat belt.

“She said” security belt gang “, said goalkeeper Raven Johnson. “So me and Breezy (Guard Bree Hall) we said:” We are locking defenders. We must be part of “seat belt gang”. … Honestly, it means not to come to our island in terms of defense.

Hall generally keeps the top scorer of the opposing team, so she will attract the main mission against the player of the year of the year Madison Booker, who has an average of 18.7 points in the playoff series for Texas.

Staley said Hall was ready for the challenge.

“She is really locked up with regard to this side because she knows she has to do her part,” said Staley. “And its share is a large part on which we count to obtain victories. And it’s not striking a lot of points. This actually prevents our opponents from scoring many points.

“She is in my top five of my 25 years of coaching.”