ALBANY — The road to an undefeated season is certain to be paved with its fair share of potential pitfalls.
For most of the season, South Carolina women’s basketball has simply steamrolled over most of those potential tricks and traps. Friday night was more of a case of the Gamecocks swerving to avoid a potential disaster.
Up by as many as 22 points in an NCAA Tournament Albany Regional 1 semifinal at MVP Arena, the Gamecocks watched as Indiana charged back to make it a one-possession game on three separate occasions in the fourth quarter, only for South Carolina to hold on to reach the Elite Eight with a 79-75 win.
“I’ve got a resilient basketball team,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “They don’t like losing.”
With 35 wins in 35 games, No. 1 South Carolina’s quest to become the first undefeated Division I women’s basketball team since Connecticut in 2015-16 will resume Sunday in the regional final against a No. 3 Oregon State team that knocked off No. 2 Notre Dame in Friday’s first semifinal in Albany.
Friday’s win was just the seventh time this season that South Carolina played a game decided by single digits. The only closer game the Gamecocks played was a 74-73 win over Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
Still, South Carolina guard Raven Johnson said, there was a simple reason why the Gamecocks never panicked.
“We have Dawn Staley,” Johnson said. “When you have a coach like that, how can you sweat? If she don’t sweat, you don’t sweat.”
While No. 4 seed Indiana spent the entire second half clawing back into the game after South Carolina looked well on its way to a third straight blowout win when it led 56-34 in the third quarter, the Hoosiers never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.
The biggest moment came when, after Mackenzie Holmes got the Hoosiers within 74-72 on a layup with 1:08 to play, South Carolina dialed up the perfect play out of a timeout.
Johnson tossed the ball into 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso — who finished with a game-high 22 points — in the post, and as soon as Indiana brought a double team, Cardoso flipped the ball back out to Johnson for a wide-open 3-pointer and a 77-72 lead.
“They collapsed on Kamilla, left Raven wide open, and I wanted her to shoot it,” Staley said. “I was mouthing ‘shoot it,’ because she was so wide open and she shot it in rhythm, and when it's like that, good, bad or indifferent, it's a really good shot to take, and I'm happy that Raven stepped up.”
Almost a year to the day after the image of Iowa star Caitlin Clark waving off Johnson and leaving her wide-open beyond the 3-point line in a Final Four game went viral, Johnson’s clutch shot on a night where she made all three of her 3-point attempts was a piece of sweet redemption.
“Nobody can sag off me this year, and I take that very personal,” Johnson said. “And I get in the gym every day and put up reps and I think that's where it comes from, the confidence.”
“Some players need that in their lives,” Staley said. “They need that type of friction in their lives to make them work a little bit harder, to meet the moment when they need to meet the moment. But certainly I know it's a feather in her cap knowing that she was able to knock down that shot.”
Indiana missed on a pair of 3-point attempts down by four in the final 15 seconds to seal South Carolina’s fourth consecutive Elite Eight berth.
Cardoso was at the center, literally and figuratively, of South Carolina’s win, scoring her 22 points on 10 of 12 shooting while adding seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Johnson chipped in 14 points, while Te-Hina Paopao and Bree Hall each scored eight.
All five Indiana starters reached double figures in scoring, led by Sydney Parrish with 21. Yarden Garzon added 16 and Holmes, Sara Scalia and Chloe Moore-McNeil each scored 12.
“Obviously we'd like to get a lead and hold serve throughout,” Staley said. “That didn't happen, and we know it's not going to happen with teams like Indiana, teams like Oregon State now, that no lead is safe.
“It's good to get this game in. But I would much rather have it smooth sailing.”