Unbeaten South Carolina women surge past N.C. State to reach NCAA title game – Orange County Register

By Tom Withers AP Sports Editor

CLEVELAND — Perfectly dominant. Nothing new for South Carolina.

With All-American center Kamilla Cardoso scoring 22 points, the Gamecocks clearly maintained their undefeated season, advancing to the championship game of the women’s NCAA tournament with a 78-59 victory over North Carolina State Friday night.

The talented and tenacious Gamecocks (37-0) led by only one point at halftime before deploying their full arsenal in the third quarter. They clamped down on defense, started knocking down 3-pointers and outscored the Wolfpack 29-6 to turn what had been a tense matchup into another one of their blowouts.

“We turned up the heat,” coach Dawn Staley said.

South Carolina will meet fellow Iowa (34-4) — after Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes beat third-seeded Paige Bueckers and UConn 71-69 — for the national title on Sunday. Iowa will have its hands full. South Carolina appears to be on a mission.

“I could tell by our faces and our voices,” said Gamecocks forward Ashlyn Watkins, who pulled down 20 rebounds. “We wanted more.”

Aziaha James scored 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting for No. 3 seed NC State (31-7), which knocked off a No. 1 seed and a No. 2 seed to travel to Cleveland .

But the Wolfpack had no chance against the Gamecocks, who have been unanimously No. 1 for most of the season in the AP Top 25 and are aiming to become the first undefeated national champion since UConn in 2016.

They seem almost invincible.

“They just punched us in the mouth in the third quarter,” James said. “I felt like the third quarter really hurt us. I feel like we could have fought harder. It was 6:29 a.m. We can’t let things like this happen to win a championship.

Cardoso added 11 rebounds while playing just 23 minutes.

She injured her right leg late in the first half and returned in the third quarter, wearing a black compression sleeve. Staley had the luxury of resting her star center in the fourth quarter to ensure she was ready for Sunday.

“She’s not going to like that answer, but she’s a beautiful Brazilian warrior,” Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao said of Cardoso. “She’s just awesome, man. She will play despite the pain. She’s going to get through this. Knowing that we still have one match, everything will be fine for her.

Watkins was just as dominant inside for the Gamecocks, grabbing 15 of her rebounds on the defensive end and scoring eight points. Raven Johnson added 13 points.

Saniya Rivers, who transferred from South Carolina to NC State after winning a title as a freshman, shot just 2 of 11 and had five turnovers as her former teammates made every touch difficult.

NC State coach Wes Moore knew his team would have to play its best to have a chance of defeating bigger, badder South Carolina.

On Thursday, he likened the semi-final to a David versus Goliath clash and promised his team would “put the stone in the sling and let it rip.”

The Wolfpack needed more than stones.

“I’m probably going to throw up a few times when I watch this third quarter,” said Moore, who regretted not switching to a zone defense sooner. “I don’t feel like a very good coach after those butt kicks. But our players, we have to have players.

“I always say you don’t win the Kentucky Derby with a mule. You have to have horses.

Relishing the role of underdog, the Wolfpack, which lost a heartbreaker in double overtime to UConn two years ago in the Elite Eight, hoped to replicate some of the magic the school conjured up in 1983. he time, the men’s team coached by NC State’s Jim Valvano shocked the hoops world by beating top-seeded Houston in the NCAA title game — an upset that helped define March Madness.

But unlike last year, when South Carolina stormed into the Final Four in Dallas with an identical 36-0 record before losing to Clark and Iowa in the semifinals, the Gamecocks held on this season intact.

The 6-foot-7 Cardoso made sure of that even though he wasn’t moving as well as usual after the injury. South Carolina, which has won by an average of 29.6 points this season, left no doubt after halftime, showing its dominance in front of a packed house and a national television audience.

“Kamilla is one of our strengths,” Staley said. “She is 6-7 years old. She is agile. She can order the painting. She plays with a desire to win. She also asked for the ball several times, that is, to bring the ball to her.

“That’s it. It’s ‘I don’t want to lose, I don’t want our season to end any other way than I envisioned, and that’s winning the national championship.'” And when you can put your game behind your vision, it creates a beautiful memory.

Paopao and Johnson made 3-pointers as the Gamecocks quickly extended their lead to 10, and they closed the quarter with a dizzying 17-1 run that quieted a rowdy NC State crowd.