The primary two spots within the girls’s Remaining 4 had been set on Sunday. South Carolina is again for the fourth yr in a row due to a 70-58 win over Oregon State, whereas North Carolina State clinched its first spot since 1998 with a 76-66 win over No. 1 seed Texas.
Listed below are some takeaways from Sunday’s video games.
South Carolina stays good
One other yr, one other Remaining 4 look for Daybreak Staley’s workforce.
Due to their win over Oregon State on Sunday, the Gamecocks are within the Remaining 4 for the fourth consecutive season and the sixth time throughout Staley’s tenure. It’s also the second yr in a row they’ve reached the Remaining 4 with an ideal document.
Their solely loss over the previous two seasons was final yr’s semifinal loss to Iowa. They might get nonetheless get a chance to avenge that loss relying on what occurs with the Iowa-LSU Elite Eight sport on Monday.
South Carolina nonetheless obtained one other scare and has some issues to wash up
Regardless of the general document, the Gamecocks have nonetheless had some flaws creeping in over the previous couple of video games because the competitors has gotten deeper within the match.
They struggled to shut out their Candy 16 sport towards Indiana and needed to maintain on late, whereas Sunday’s Elite Eight sport additionally obtained shut within the fourth quarter earlier than they pulled away.
Sunday was additionally an particularly poor taking pictures day for the Gamecocks from 3-point vary, hitting simply 4-of-20 pictures from past the arc. They had been among the finest three-point taking pictures groups within the nation through the common season, so the very fact they had been nonetheless in a position to win an Elite Eight sport by double digits regardless of an off-day taking pictures is a testomony to how good this yr’s workforce is.
Staley has talked this match about how it is a very younger workforce and might typically get itself into hassle by taking some unhealthy pictures with large leads, however the general expertise degree is plain.
Oregon State is certainly on the rise
After lacking the NCAA Match in every of the previous two years and beginning the season unranked, Oregon State battled by way of an especially tough Pac-12 convention, completed in third place through the common season and even reached the highest 10 within the nationwide rankings at its excessive level. With a number of starters and key gamers prone to return subsequent season the arrow is certainly pointing up.
Three-point line mishap is an unacceptable mistake at this degree
The large subject within the North Carolina State-Texas sport was the incorrectly measured three-point line in Portland.
That’s merely the type of mistake that may not occur at this degree of basketball and at this stage of the competitors.
Although the 2 groups on Sunday agreed to play by way of it, each different sport performed there this weekend didn’t have the luxurious of deciding if that is what they wished to do.
It isn’t simply the very fact it occurred, but additionally the very fact it occurred for 2 rounds that no one observed or questioned. As soon as it was recognized it was a mistake that was exhausting to overlook and simple to see.
It’s merely a nasty search for the NCAA.
The three-point sport was a game-changer for each groups
No matter how the road was measured the three-point sport was at all times going to be an enormous X-factor on this matchup. And for Texas in any sport.
Primarily as a result of Texas virtually by no means makes use of that facet of the sport.
It is awfully tough to win in basketball in 2024 with out using three-point pictures and it was at all times going to be a giant query for Texas.
Effectively, on Sunday it was a giant subject that Texas could not overcome.
The Longhorns had been simply 1-of-6 from three-point vary, in comparison with a 9-for-18 day by the WolfPack. Aziaha James alone went 7-for-9 on her option to a 27-point effort.
In a sport determined by 10 factors, that distinction in method is likely one of the greatest deciding elements.
