South Carolina women's basketball: Calm fourth quarter huddle saved the Gamecocks' season
The clock hit all zeros, and the horn sounded. The Gamecocks gathered around Dawn Staley as the bands played, cheerleaders danced, and the arena host tried to pump up crowd, which mostly favored South Carolina – and was mostly discouraged.
Duke led 42-38. South Carolina hadn’t scored a field goal in over six minutes. An 11-point lead had become, at one point, a six-point deficit. And South Carolina had been outrebounded in the quarter by a laughable 12-2 margin.
There were ten minutes left in the game, and it felt like ten minutes left in the season.
But nobody in the South Carolina huddle panicked. Nobody yelled. Nobody screamed. Everyone stayed calm. Tessa Johnson recalled the message in the huddle.
“We have one more quarter,” Johnson said. “We need to do better than we did in the third quarter. And that we got it.”
Staley turned to the starting unit, with four fourth-year players and a junior, to start the fourth. She wanted their experience on the floor.
“The message was basically we gotta operate,” Staley said. “One, it was the offensive rebounds were killing us, okay? Two, we have to operate in broken plays. Because they blew up some of our sets, and when they blow them up, we have to stay calm, and we have to get a shot at the basket to give ourselves an opportunity to make a basket or get an offensive rebound. But it was just about runs. It was their run, and we just talked about going on one of our runs.”
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It didn’t happen immediately, but the tide began to turn. Sania Feagin hit a difficult jumper to end the eight-minute stretch without a field goal. Raven Johnson drew a foul and sank two free throws to tie the game.
“Everything was good. We told the team we’ve got to lock in,” Te-Hina Paopao said. “I always tell my team first five, that’s before the first (media) timeout. We’ve got to give our best.”
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Paopao did her part, driving strong to the hoop for the go-ahead layup. Then Regional MVP Chloe Kitts added another layup.
South Carolina had scored eight straight to start the fourth quarter. It was part of a 10-0 run that lasted nearly five minutes. It wasn’t the quick strike the Gamecocks are known for, but that didn’t matter.
“We were calm, honestly, we were good,” Raven Johnson said. “Defensive stops and intangibles, like the rebounding, not giving Duke extra possessions, things like that got us over the hump.”
Duke tied the game again, but Feagin put South Carolina back on top. Kitts scored South Carolina’s last six points to seal the win.
“It feels amazing because I feel like I worked so hard and my process is different and everyone’s process is different and I’m just so thankful to be in that position at the end of the game to go the Final Four,” Kitts said.
