WATCH: South Carolina celebrates third straight final four appearance
The South Carolina women’s basketball team took down the 2-seed in the Greenville Regional in the Elite Eight. And with that victory, the Gamecocks are headed to their third straight Final Four. In the video below, you can see them begin to celebrate in the final moments of their tightly contested matchup against the Maryland Terrapins.
It was business as usual for South Carolina as the defending national champs took care of business again on Monday against another quality opponent in the women’s March Madness tournament. South Carolina beat Maryland, who entered the tournament with a 25-6 record and ranked No. 7 in the nation 86-75. And that victory was made possible with the performance of South Carolina’s star forward Aliyah Boston.
South Carolina continues to roll in this year’s women’s tournament. Every opponent that the Gamecocks have faced, they have beaten them by double digits.
Boston plays big for South Carolina
In Monday night’s matchup against Maryland, Boston led the Gamecocks in scoring (22 points) and rebounds (10), putting up another double-double on the year. She also had five assists and two blocks on the night. But Boston didn’t do it alone. Starting guard Zia Cooke almost had a double-double herself with 18 points and eight rebounds.
For Maryland, senior guard Diamond Miller did all she could to keep her team in the game. The Somerset, NJ, native stuffed her stat sheet scoring 24 points with five rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal against South Carolina. Unfortunately for Miller, she and her Terrapin teammates could not stop committing fouls. Maryland fouled South Carolina 26 times in the game, more than doubling the Gamecocks’ 12 on the night. Those 26 penalties resulted in South Carolina getting 11 more trips to the free-throw line. The Gamecocks converted 16 of their 26 free throw attempts.
At the same time, Maryland went 10-15 from the charity stripe. The Terrapins also could not keep Boston and her crew off the boards as South Carolina outrebounded Maryland 48-26. The Gamecocks nearly pulled down as many offensive rebounds as the Terrapins had in total, finishing the game with 25 offensive boards.
Up next for the Gamecocks is another team with the capability to push them to their limits in the Iowa Hawkeyes and their sharpshooting guard Caitlin Clark. That contest is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 31, with an 8 PM CT tip-off. You can catch all the action on ESPN or by using the ESPN app.