Champion South Carolina reaches fifth straight women's Final Four after battling through Duke's defense

Boston Globe

30-03-2025

'It is not going to look pretty. It's not. There's stretches in each game that does not look pretty,' Staley said. 'Some of it's not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision. How we practice. But you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that's presented in front of you. We'll do that. If we're not scoring a lot of points, we'll up our defense.'
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South Carolina did just that, and Staley's top-seeded Gamecocks are two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat as champions since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. South Carolina will play the winner of the Texas-TCU game that takes place Monday night.
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The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Fla.
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Second-seeded Duke was looking to get to its first national semifinals since 2006. That team lost in overtime to Maryland in the title game at TD Garden. The Blue Devils women were also looking to join the men's program in the Final Four.
South Carolina (34-3) was stymied for most of the game by Duke's stingy defense. The Gamecocks came in averaging 80.5 points, but points were difficult to come by Sunday.
'I thought they forced us into taking some bad shots that almost ended our season, really, especially in the first half,' Staley said.
COUNT IT 😤😤
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB)
The game was tied at 46 when Sania Feagin, who finished with 12 points, hit a jumper to put the Gamecocks ahead with 4:21 left. Kitts, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the region, added two free throws 42 seconds later to make it 50-46.
Toby Fournier, who led Duke with 18 points, scored with 3:21 left to get the Blue Devils (29-8) back within two.
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The Blue Devils trailed, 52-50, with 29.8 seconds left when South Carolina's Bree Hall was called for an offensive foul on an inbound play, giving Duke a chance to tie or take the lead.
Duke worked the clocked down before Ashlon Jackson airballed a 3-pointer from the wing with 7 seconds left. Hall got the rebound and South Carolina called timeout.
'Went with the ball in Ashlon's hands as she had been making plays for us in the fourth quarter out of the ball screen,' Duke coach Kara Lawson said. 'She tried to make a play and just missed it.'
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Kitts was fouled with 5.7 seconds left and calmly sank both free throws to seal the win, much to the delight of a majority of the 11,252 fans in attendance who traveled to Alabama.
Duke turned over the ball on the ensuing inbound play and the Gamecocks ran out the clock.
'A lot of things we asked our players to do and they delivered in a big way,' Lawson said. 'It wasn't enough. Hold your head high, you competed. They competed as hard as you could. As a coach that's all you can ask.'