Half of the field for the women’s NCAA Tournament Final Four is set. The other half will be settled on Monday evening.
Who will join Iowa and LSU in Dallas?
The second set of Elite Eight games begins with No. 1 South Carolina — the defending champions — versus No. 2 Maryland (7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN). The Gamecocks are aiming to become the first repeat women’s basketball champion since Connecticut won four straight national titles from 2013-16. Maryland last reached the Final Four in 2015 and had its own national championship in 2006.
Then No. 1 Virginia Tech plays No. 3 Ohio State (9 p.m. ET on ESPN). The Hokies have never reached the Final Four. The Buckeyes last reached the Final Four in 1993.
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The Maryland Terrapins are struggling to make it to the Final Four for the South Carolina Gamecocks, leading 21-15 at the end of the first quarter. The Terrapins scored 12 unanswered points towards the end of the period as Dawn Staley’s team failed to find rhythm. South Carolina’s Laeticia Amihere finally broke the streak with two free throws.
Senior guard Abby Meyers is the game’s top scorer with seven points for Maryland. Star forward Aliyah Boston has six points for South Carolina.
It’s not often that a No. 2 seedling in the NCAA tournament is considered a huge underdog to a top seed, but that’s exactly what the Maryland Terrapins (28-6) are, going into an elite eight showdown with the join reigning national champions South Carolina.
South Carolina has lost exactly two games to Missouri and Kentucky in the last two seasons in the 2021-22 season. The Gamecocks (35-0) have rolled the most opponents this season and are on a 41-game winning streak dating back to last year’s NCAA tournament. Only five opponents have even kept losses in the single digits, with two putting the Gamecocks into overtime – Stanford in November and Ole Miss in February.
So Maryland coach Brenda Frese, who led the Terrapins to the national championship in 2006, knows what her team struggles with: experience, depth and size.
“Obviously, to be undefeated and to look at the depth and size that they have, you take players off the bench and they get even better,” Frese told the Washington Post. “It has to rank as one of the best up there when you talk about all the greatness that’s on their list.”
Maryland is aiming for its first Final Four since the Terrapins played back-to-back in 2014 and 2015.
— Ellen J. Horrow
South Carolina senior guard Brea Beal has an extra season of COVID-19 eligibility available but said she doesn’t plan to use it and will declare for the 2023 WNBA draft.
“School isn’t for me, I’m telling you, so I’ve definitely[made a decision],” Beal said, laughing. “So much of my career that I feel like a lot of things went unnoticed, so being able to wrap up my senior year, seeing a lot of people mocking me or just talking about me shows that I starting to stand out and how valuable I can be.”
Beal has never headlined for the No. 1 Gamecocks, but she anchored the starting lineup from the moment she stepped onto campus. Last year, she received All-American Honorable Mention honors from the Associated Press for the first time in her career and was named a finalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year along with teammate Aliyah Boston, the honor’s reigning winner.
ESPN and The Athletic are currently forecasting Beal as the No. 7 overall pick in the April 10 WNBA draft.
– Emily Adams, News from Greenville, South Carolina.
On the morning of the 2023 SEC championship game, the first thing South Carolina women’s basketball point guard Kierra Fletcher did was text her friend Kayana Traylor good luck.
At almost the same time the Gamecocks played Tennessee on March 5, Traylor and Virginia Tech hoisted the ACC women’s basketball championship trophy. Fletcher and South Carolina won the SEC title hours later.
“It was crazy because right after we played I checked the score and I was like, ‘Wow, they won,'” Fletcher said. “I called her as soon as I had time and we were just talking about how crazy it was that we both won the conference tournament together.”
Traylor, a 5-foot-9 senior guard for the Hokies, first connected with the Gamecocks’ starting point guard via social media. They bonded because they were from the Midwest — Fletcher is from Michigan and Traylor is from Indiana — and have been together for almost three years now.
Now South Carolina and Virginia Tech are the only 1 seeds left. When Virginia Tech defeats Ohio State and the Gamecocks defeat Maryland, Fletcher and Traylor will travel to Dallas to win the national championship.
– Emily Adams, News from Greenville, South Carolina.
It was no wonder that Ohio State overtook the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1993. The Buckeyes easily outplayed the Huskies for most of the game on Saturday in a 73-61 win over Connecticut.
“As long as we’re playing our game,” said Ohio State senior forward Eboni Walker, “we have the utmost faith in ourselves and in each other.”
For Ohio State, playing their game goes hand-in-hand with their full-court press. When the Buckeyes get their pressing set and start forcing turnover after turnover after turnover like they did against the Huskies, stopping them can be almost impossible.
Now No. 1 Virginia Tech has to deal with the Ohio State press, as does UConn. During the Hokies’ Sweet 16 win over Tennessee, the Lady Vols used their own press to come back from an 18-point deficit early in the third quarter and get to one point.
Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks knows Ohio State will be using all the press Monday night and says his team needs to attack smart but aggressively.
“We’ve got to go downhill, take the pressure off and get some easy opportunities and I think that’ll make it a little bit easier,” Brooks said. “But they’ve been doing it all year. They’re really good at it.”
– Bailey Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch
Kim Mulkey is already challenging South Carolina in the Final Four.
The defending champion doesn’t play their Elite Eight game against second-placed Maryland until Monday night, but Mulkey won’t have to wait for that. The top-ranked Gamecocks will be in Dallas next weekend, LSU’s coach said Sunday night.
“South Carolina is going. I’m just telling you that with all my might,” she said after LSU secured their own place in the Final Four with a 54-42 win over Miami. “It’s nothing against who they play. I just know how good they are.”
South Carolina beat LSU by 24 points, 88-64, in their only meeting of the regular season. If Mulkey’s team sees the Gamecocks again, a national title would be at stake.
“I would love to be in this championship with them,” Mulkey said.
– Nancy armor
To get an idea of just how exhilarating Caitlin Clark’s game is, all you had to do on Sunday — unless you were near a TV to watch her amass 41 points, give 12 assists and hit 10 rebounds — is Twitter scroll.
In the second half, as her Hawkeyes moved away from Louisville and everyone in the Climate Pledge Arena went on triple-double watch, Clark became the #1 trending topic on Twitter. And as Clark led second-seeded Iowa to their first Final Four since 1993, it became clear: The junior guard is the superstar that women’s basketball needs, right when the game needs it.
On Saturday, women’s basketball bid a premature farewell to UConn, the program that had set an NCAA-record 14 consecutive Final Fours but will be watching from home this April. On Sunday, it welcomed Clark, the most electrifying player in college basketball, whether male or female. Their switching passes cause gasping, their tendency to pull themselves up from the logo makes opponents shake their heads.
She is a towering talent, a player of the year contender who elevates everyone around her and loves the big stage. As Iowa built a 22-point lead on Sunday, she played in front of the crowd and motioned for fans to cheer louder, holding her ear to see if they complied. Asked what it’s like to wrap an entire arena around your finger, Clark leaned into the mic and sheepishly admitted, “I feel kind of powerful.”
– Lindsay Schnell