Marching on! No. 1 South Carolina defeats Maryland to reach NCAA Final Four

The Gamecocks are headed to Dallas.

The No. 1 South Carolina women’s basketball team defeated Maryland 86-75 on Monday in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

They advance to the Final Four to face the Iowa Hawkeyes. The game will be played Friday in Dallas.

Maryland took control of Monday’s game early on, limiting South Carolina’s opportunities in the paint. The Gamecocks were 4-of-11 on layups and struggled to get open looks. The Terrapins employed a full-court press that disrupted USC’s flow.

The Terrapins found their own rhythm on offense, shooting 7-of-14 from the floor and leading 21-15 after the first quarter.

But South Carolina (36-0) flipped the script in the second quarter. The team held Maryland (28-7) to nine points in the period and forced it into four turnovers.

“I thought it just took us awhile to get our footing, to really make adjustments to how they were playing us,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “And once we did, we fought aggression with aggression.”

The Gamecocks led by eight at halftime due mostly to the offense of Aliyah Boston, who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The Gamecocks scored 23 points in the second quarter and 24 points in the third.

Abby Meyers and Diamond Miller were the primary contributors for Maryland, but the Terrapins ultimately couldn’t keep up with the scoring pace of South Carolina.

GAMECOCK SENIORS CARRY LOAD

Boston and Zia Cooke elevated for the Gamecocks in the Elite Eight.

Boston kept a steady diet of midrange jumpers and inside shots to get to her mark of 22 points. She also blocked and altered shots at the rim on the defensive end. Boston made great passes throughout the night and finished with five assists.

“They wanted to pressure you all the time,” Boston said. “So just understanding and reading that, but also understanding that we are bigger in size, that we need to be able to attack them. And so that’s I tried to do.”

Cooke was getting her jumper to fall for South Carolina. She finished with 18 points against Maryland. Cooke is now up to a career-high 63 3-point makes on the season after her two triples on Monday.

Senior guard Brea Beal took off in the second half and finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and a team-high six assists.

SECOND QUARTER SWITCH

The Gamecocks got going in the second quarter after they figured out Maryland’s full-court pressure.

USC shot 7-of-14 in the quarter and went 8-of-14 from the free-throw line. Six of the seven made shots came from assists, and the team turned the ball over just once in that span.

South Carolina regained the lead after a 9-2 run, and mostly stayed in front from that point on.

“We noticed that they were switching on us, and they were kind of denying us the ball in a way,” Cooke said. “I think the post players played a huge role in our wins tonight.”

Maryland began the game pushing the pace on offense, but the Gamecocks found a way to slow the Terrapins down.

Along with the improved shooting from the field, USC also got to the free throw line 26 times, making 16 for those shots.

“We just tried to get them in foul trouble,” redshirt freshman Raven Johnson said. “Every time we were driving, they were fouling. We kept driving and we were hitting free throws. And I think that’s what helped us.”

BACK IN THE FINAL FOUR

South Carolina will play in its fifth Final Four in program history. Each appearance came under Staley.

The team will face 2-seed Iowa from the Seattle 4 region. The Hawkeyes defeated SE Louisiana, Georgia, Colorado and Louisville to advance to Dallas.

Iowa is led by Caitlin Clark, who is considered a front runner for the National Player of the Year award. Clark recorded the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA Tournament history in the Elite Eight game against the Cardinals.

The Gamecocks are 2-2 all time in Final Four games, with the wins in 2017 and 2022 resulting in national championships.

“Especially this time of the year, everybody’s bringing it,” Beal said. “Everybody knows what they have to give to be able to continue on.”