Texas takes on South Carolina and UConn plays UCLA in women's Final Four
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Title: Texas enters tonight's game on a magical run
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The Texas Longhorns are in their fourth Final Four and first since the 2002-03 season.
Texas' offense has been a key reason for their run throughout this year's tournament, led by forward Madison Booker who's averaging 16.5 points per game on 50% shooting from the field.
And although Vic Schaefer's team will come in on a wave of positivity, the Longhorns face a stiff test against South Carolina as they look to win their second national championship.
The teams split their two SEC regular season meetings, but Texas lost its two games to the Gamecocks by a combined 36 points, including a 64-45 hammering in the SEC championship game. Both of those loses came in the state of South Carolina – in Columbia and Greenville.
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Title: South Carolina looks to continue its run of dominance
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The first Final Four matchup sees last year's champion seeking to continue the defense of its title.
The South Carolina Gamecocks have become the team to beat in women's college basketball in recent years, with head coach Dawn Staley building the team into a perennial winner.
The Gamecocks are aiming to cement their dynasty by winning their third title in four years, thereby becoming the fourth team to win back-to-back national titles, joining Tennessee, Southern California and UConn.
Many of the team's former star players now ply their trade in the WNBA – such as A'ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso – and the current Gamecock squad has been taking advantage of the ties with those talented alums.
'Relationships are important no matter where you go in life. To be able to talk to alumni and former Gamecocks, it helps our program a lot because they've been through it,' guard Te-Hina Paopao told reporters on Thursday.
'They speak life into us. And (Markeshia Grant) helped us during the season with team bonding and just bringing us closer together and just having that involvement with everyone on the team. And it's helped us greatly and we learn from it. And we've continued to use those team-bonding moments to help us in the long run and experience like this.'
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Title: Here's the matchups, times and channels for tonight's games
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It's finally time for the Final Four! Here's the schedule for tonight's action:
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