South Carolina saw its starters were 10-for-34 from the field on Friday.
South Carolina had 14 points from four of its five starters, aside from Chloe Kitts.
South Carolina trailed at halftime.
But, when the clock struck zero in a neck and neck Sweet 16 matchup against Maryland, the first two words of all of those excuses were the ones that told the story: they’re still South Carolina.
The Gamecocks held off a surging Maryland team with a 71-67 victory on Friday in Birmingham, punching a ticket to their fifth straight Elite Eight appearance against Duke.
“It’s more mental than actual basketball: people don’t realize that,” Kitts said of the matchup. “In the game, we just realized our highs and lows in the game, we came together and we knew what we had to do and that was locking in our defense.
“I wasn’t the only one who hit clutch free throws late: Bree did, Sania did, so that was really good for us.”
Down 60-59 with just 3:25 left to play in the nip-and-tuck game, the Gamecocks rolled to 6 straight points before a 3-pointer from Saylor Poffenbarger forced a timeout; South Carolina hit 5 more free throws to close out the contest.
The Gamecocks went 9-for-12 from the charity stripe, proving to be one of the difference makers in the matchup.
But, MiLaysia Fulwiley was a pretty good difference as well.
The SEC Sixth Player of the Year dominated in clutch time, scoring 16 of her 23 points in the second half and 11 in the fourth quarter of the matchup, going 9-for-17 from the field.
She was one of two Gamecocks in double figures, as Kitts scored 15 points and logged 11 rebounds, 10 of her points coming in the first quarter.
“I think every game, I kind of feel like I need to do more,” she said. “My teammates, they tell me every game that I need to be on top of my game, do what I do best, whether it’s just driving or just scoring period. I think today, I was locked in and determined and really straightforward about what I wanted to do, which is win.”
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley expressed plenty of confidence in the way her bench can perform, which also included 6 points and 7 rebounds from Joyce Edwards as the reserves outscored the starters.
“They are probably a little bit younger, they’re able to get up and down the floor a little bit freely and play free, because the amount of freedom that they have, the starters don’t have it,” Staley said. “If I told the starters that our reserves, our bench players come in and they play with a certain freedom, they might want to come in off the bench and play with that same freedom.”
“It’s important. I mean, you cannot win a national championship without having depth. You can’t. I used to recruit and say, hey, come help me win a national championship, right? Until you’ve won, you really don’t know. Then when you have won them, you know what is the commonality. We have had depth, we have had health, like when we were at our most healthiest, we win. Like we win a whole lot of basketball games.”
Maryland saw two of its top three scorers foul out in the physical game in Kaylene Smikle (17 points) and Allie Kubek (12 points), with both players grabbing 5 rebounds apiece.
Despite the loss, longtime Maryland coach Brenda Freseexpressed plenty of pride in taking the defending national champion toe-to-toe on one of the game’s highest stage, noting her team’s resilience.
“We wanted to pack the paint, battle on the glass, and I thought we did that to the very end,” she said. “Just appreciate this group. It was such a journey with all of them starting all the way back when we brought ten new players in and every single one of them choosing to buy in and believe in this coaching staff and believe in the system.
“I know we’re disappointed, because we felt like through the journey and through this game that we had a chance to be able to move on, but we hold our head high just given how we played tonight.”
Staley prided her team with not only being able to pull out of the matchup, but prove something about the team and its depth despite not playing up to its standard in Birmingham.
“We’re a resilient group,” she said. “People thought we had the easiest region; I didn’t think so. It’s not easy at all, it gets harder, because we’ve got to play Duke. I just think our team has been through so much. They’re unshakeable, they’re unflappable. Our conference gives us a lot of confidence to be able to be in a tight-knit game and find a way to win because that’s what it’s about at this stage of the game.
“Is it ugly? Yes. Are people going to say this doesn’t look like a national championship team? Well, I mean, we didn’t look like one last year to most in the beginning of the season. Probably didn’t look like one — we looked like one in ‘22. ‘17 we didn’t look like one. I think we’re back to where we don’t look like one and hopefully we can win it and even it out.”
