The road to the Final Four - How beating Duke launched South Carolina to the 2015 Final Four

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Under Dawn Staley, South Carolina has made the Final Four four times in the last seven NCAA tournaments, and almost certainly would have made a fifth appearance had the 2020 tournament not been canceled. Each team had its own story – from upstart party crashers to an unlikely run to a wire-to-wire juggernaut – but there is one thing they all have in common. There was one game during the season that put the Gamecocks on their path to the Final Four.

The Background

The 2014-15 team was South Carolina’s first Final Four team. The Gamecocks had won the SEC regular season title the year before, had the reigning SEC player of the year, had added the nation’s top recruit, and had ascended to the no. 1 for the first time in program history. But it was still very much a “prove it” season.

South Carolina got its chance against Duke on December 7, in front of a national audience on ESPN2. Duke was ranked ninth and was a year removed from four consecutive Elite Eight appearances. The Blue Devils were clearly the more established program, and they had the home-court advantage of hallowed Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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The Game

The first sign the game would be special came off the court. Thousands of Gamecock fans, eager to see their team tested, made the trip to Durham. There were so many that Dawn Staley was able to call for a blackout on the road. Maybe half of the announced crowd of 6,000 was cheering for the Gamecocks, and they were the more vocal side.

“We were stretching and we saw them walk in, and they just kept coming, and coming, and coming, and we were looking like, ‘Oh, okay!’” senior Aleighsa Welch said. “We didn’t realize how many fans were going to be there, but I definitely think it gave us extra motivation when we went into our slumps.” 

And there were slumps. The halftime score was a scintillating 21-17. Staley was hit with a rare technical foul in the first half. Duke missed 15 straight shot attempts. Tiffany Mitchell briefly left the game after her face was bloodied. The teams traded big runs in the second half, and the final minute made up for any lack of excitement from the first 39 minutes.

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Duke led 50-46 with less than 30 seconds to play. Mitchell hit a three to pull South Carolina within a point, but with only 19 seconds to play South Carolina would have to foul. Instead, Khadijah Sessions and Olivia Gaines forced a turnover. Sessions was credited with the steal on the box score, but Gaines, a defensive specialist who played less than a minute in the entire game, swiped the ball. 

“We’ll call a timeout to get Olivia in the game because she makes things happen from a defensive standpoint,” Staley said. “She’s a one-woman press. If we say go get the ball, she finds a way to get the ball.”

After a timeout Mitchell missed an off-balance runner, but A’ja Wilson followed for the game-winning putback with 1.8 seconds left. Duke still had time, but Sessions frantically got South Carolina repositioned on defense and Duke couldn’t get a shot off.

It was the first big play of Wilson’s career, even though she wasn’t the focal point.

“Coach Boyer was like, we’ve got to crash the boards. So I knew whatever shot went up I’ve got to crash the boards,” Wilson said. “She missed it and it kind of fell in my hands and I put it up there.”

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The Aftermath

The Gamecocks had passed their first test, and in doing so they established the depth and mettle that would carry them to the Final Four. South Carolina seemed to have a player for every situation, and everyone bought in and was ready. 

Tina Roy scored a career-high 15 points to avoid an upset by LSU in the SEC Tournament. Then Aleighsa Welch, who was barely a top-100 recruit, was the SEC Tournament MVP instead of all the five-stars. Session scored off back-to-back steals to put away Savannah State. Alaina Coates scored 14 points to break the Syracuse zone. Gaines made a clutch three, one of just four three-pointers in her career, to tie North Carolina in the final minute of the Sweet 16. Asia Dozier, who was 6-9 from the line all season, went 4-4 in the final 20 seconds to seal the win over Florida State in the Elite Eight.

In the Final Four against Notre Dame and its cadre of future WNBA stars, it was once again Welch, trying desperately to prolong her career for another game, who led South Carolina back from a 12-point deficit and gave the Gamecocks a lead with just over a minute to play. And it was Wilson, the future greatest player in program history, who led the Gamecocks in scoring and blocked Notre Dame’s last-second shot attempt, only to see it fall into Irish hands for the game-winning putback.

Honorable mention: In the second game of the season, South Carolina destroyed Clemson 99-41. In the fourth quarter, Staley emptied her bench, and there was still a McDonald’s All-American on the floor. It was the first time South Carolina really flexed its muscle against a power conference opponent, and it was a sign of how high the ceiling was that season.

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