How South Carolina outlasted Duke to advance to its fifth straight Final Four

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Duke tried to drag South Carolina to their hell. The Gamecocks got to the gates, tied with under five minutes to play in their lowest-scoring performance of the season, then wriggled out of the Blue Devils’ grasp.

Like hashbrowns at Waffle House, Duke had South Carolina smothered, covered and scattered. The Blue Devils led in the fourth quarter, and by as much as six points in the third quarter. The Gamecocks turned the ball over 16 times and were outrebounded by 11. The Blue Devils had them cornered.

But it didn’t matter.

Because this is March.

And in the third month of the year, Dawn Staley’s team is inevitable.

Over the past six seasons, they are now 40-2 in March — a winning percentage of 95.2. Worrying about South Carolina winning in March is like wondering if the sun is going to come up. It’s a sure thing. This team that Staley has built is an indestructible machine.

South Carolina can’t even be compared to the Death Star. There is no hidden fault in their system, no secret plan to defeat them, and there is no Luke Skywalker capable of finding such a defect and blowing it up.

And so, without being armed with a basketball-playing-Jedi, Duke lost. Yes, the game was incredibly close. And yes, the closest thing Duke has to that sort of player — ACC Rookie of the Year Toby Fournier — was inexplicably on the bench when the Blue Devils had the ball down two points with 29 seconds to play. But South Carolina wanted it more. The Gamecocks never backed down from Duke’s oppressive defense. When the game mattered most, South Carolina’s veterans stepped up.

For the fifth straight season, and for the seventh time in program history, South Carolina is going to the Final Four. The reigning champs — women’s basketball’s Goliath — bested Duke 54-50 in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 11,252 fans, most of them cheering loudly for the Gamecocks in garnet-and-black.

South Carolina’s point total is the second-lowest the program has ever scored in an NCAA Tournament game, and their lowest in any game since 2022, when they notched 49 points in a second-round win over Miami.

Senior forward Sania Feagin had 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks for the Gamecocks and connected on a handful of timely shots when the game was tight. Junior forward Chloe Kitts knocked down the game-sealing free throws with five seconds left en route to a team-high 14 points.

“I just made my free throws when it mattered,” Kitts said.

Between those free throws, Bree Hall injected confidence in Kitts by screaming at her: “You’re unshakeable! You’re unshakeable! You got this!”

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

This wasn’t a game where MiLaysia Fulwiley came off the bench to save the day for South Carolina as she did in the Sweet 16 against Maryland. The star spark-plug sophomore with a Curry Brand endorsement deal finished with five points and four turnovers in 11 minutes of play.

No, when Duke turned the heat up and put the clamps on the Gamecocks, the game turned into one that only seemed to be fit for South Carolina’s older guard, a group of juniors and seniors that included Feagin, Kitts, Raven Johnson, Hall and Te-Hina Paopao — each of whom played north of 30 minutes.

When Duke took its six-point lead in the third quarter — which seemed insurmountable in this rockfight of a game — it was Paopao who met the moment, knocking down back-to-back mid-range jumpers. She then flushed two free throws at the end of the frame to cut Duke’s advantage to four points.

“She was really big,” Feagin said of Paopao. “Every time I passed it to her I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to shoot that mid-range. They send two to you or to me, don’t be afraid to shoot that mid-range.’”

And then Kitts and Feagin went to work in the fourth quarter, flourishing in-tandem in the post. The forwards combined for 12 points and four rebounds in the game’s final 10 minutes. They were part of a defensive unit that forced Duke’s Ashlon Jackson into a difficult 3-point attempt that missed the mark in the waning moments of the game. After Kitts’ free throws, Feagin stole a pass from Reigan Richardson with four seconds to go that put the win on ice.

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

There is an alternate universe in which Duke’s Fournier is on the floor for the Blue Devils’ last meaningful offensive possession, but Blue Devils’ coach Kara Lawson took her out in favor of a guard, Taina Mair. Fournier finished with 18 points and was having success finishing against the Gamecocks in the pick-and-roll. The Blue Devils had previously been 10-0 when Fournier scored that many points.

But alas, she wasn’t on the court. So Duke settled for Jackson’s long-range jumper.

“Just a coach’s decision,” Lawson said of not having Fournier on the floor with 29 seconds to play. “Went with the ball in Ashlon’s hands. She had been making plays for us in the fourth quarter out of the ball screen. She tried to make a play and just missed it.”

Lawson added of her team: “I thought they did a great job executing the game plan… We really wanted to limit their second-chance opportunities, too. They have really athletic front-court players and they only got five second-chance points… They competed as hard as they could.”

It didn’t matter. It’s March. This time of the year belongs to South Carolina.

After losing to the Gamecocks by four points on Friday in the Sweet 16, Maryland coach Brenda Frese offered this: “I think we gave a pretty good blueprint on how to beat South Carolina, to be quite honest, for the teams moving forward.”

But this is just wishful thinking. There is no blueprint. Maryland didn’t draw one up and Duke didn’t either. South Carolina allowed both of those teams to impose their wills on the game and beat them anyways. High-scoring or low-scoring, sloppy or smooth, South Carolina is going to win in March more often than not.

“Some of it’s not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision or how you practice, but you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that’s presented in front of you, and we’ll do that,” Staley said.

Kitts had the perfect rebuttal to Frese: “At the end of the day, they lost. So like, did you do the blueprint or did you not? Because if you did the blueprint, you would have won.”

Indeed.

Even if the Terrapins or Blue Devils deserved to win, deserved has nothing to do with it. Duke and Maryland wanted it to be one way, but it’s the other way, because it’s March where the game is the same, but more fierce — and just right for South Carolina.

And if you come at the Gamecocks, you best not miss.