South Carolina women's basketball: Post-semifinals notebook

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News and notes from both national semifinal games.

• Saniya Rivers responded to her benching with a big game. She had some rough moments as Louisville went after her at first, and only shot 1-6, but she settled down and she made some big plays. She had a pivotal steal and layup and with her long arms, she was able to disrupt passing lanes. Offensively, she had four assists, including a couple of beautiful passes for layups. “I thought Saniya did extremely well. I knew we were going to need someone that has good court vision, that’s able to pass the ball. Like she has a real good knack for her court vision. It’s elite. I just thought bringing her in where we put her in a position where she could play make, get our post players the ball or make good decisions, she’s been doing that all season long. It’s just certain situations call for you to really hone in on that, and I thought she did a great job with it.”

• One hidden part of the game that I thought made a big difference was how South Carolina used Brea Beal on offense. Beal set lots of screens and was in constant motion. It helped wear down Hailey Van Lith and meant she couldn’t switch when Beal set screens for Aliyah Boston.

• Brea Beal. Not on the Defensive Player of the Year Watch List. Not on the SEC All-Defense team. Do people even watch games?

• There were a lot of questions about why Staley subbed so much in the first half. My two cents: She was feeling out matchups and getting everyone’s feet wet. For example Bree Hall played 3:32, but now she’s played in a Final Four. She got the butterflies out.

• Staley talked about not calling a timeout during Louisville’s 12-0 run. “I was happy that we saw some shots go in, and I was happy that we were able to take their hit and just keep playing. I could have called a time-out, and I think in the second quarter they went on a 12-0 run. When you know why it’s happening and you’ve got an experienced team like we have, we just let the game settle in and corrected it on the fly.”

• Stanford shot 35% against UConn, and somehow it felt even worse. Even when the shots went in, the offense looked out of sync. Haley Jones talked about the frustration. “I think they were definitely good looks. I know I wanted some of those shots back where I had good looks. I’m sure everybody on the team felt that way. What are you going to do? The ball doesn’t always go in the basket.”

• Perhaps the bigger surprise was that UConn outrebounded Stanford 46-37. Stanford seemed like it should have had the advantage on the glass, UConn was dominated on the glass in the first meeting with South Carolina, and will need another big game from Olivia Nelson-Ododa, who had 10 rebounds Friday. “I thought Nelson-Ododa was extremely aggressive. She had five O-boards. She played really well for them, and she was extremely physical when we went to our post player just in terms of what she was doing, both she and (Aliyah) Edwards,” said Tara VanDerveer. Edwards had eight rebounds.

• Paige Bueckers banged knees in the fourth quarter and was walking very gingerly for awhile. Even before that, she didn’t look right. Aliyah Boston also came up lame when she stepped on a Cardinals’ foot on a rebound, but return. It’s worth keeping an eye on how players are feeling the rest of the weekend.

• UConn’s offense didn’t set the world on fire either. The Huskies shot just 36.8% and 5-14 from three and 6-16 on layups. They also committed 19 turnovers, including eight in the fourth quarter when they nearly blew an eight-point lead. For once, South Carolina enters the game playing better on offense than the other team.

• Hat tip to ESPN: Boston led both teams in points, rebounds, and assists. Boston also led all four teams in points and rebounds, and Bueckers was the only player with more assists: five.