South Carolina Women’s Basketball tops Indiana, 79-75

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(AP) — With South Carolina’s good season on the road, coach Daybreak Staley had complete religion that Raven Johnson would make the mandatory performs for her crew.Johnson did simply that, hitting an enormous 3-pointer within the ultimate minute to assist the top-seeded Gamecocks stay unbeaten with a 79-75 over Indiana on Friday that moved them into the Albany 1 Regional Closing of the ladies’s NCAA Match.“I noticed Raven’s eyes coming down the stretch as our lead was diminishing and I knew she wasn’t going to allow us to lose,” Staley mentioned. “She was going to do one thing. She had two massive baskets.”Johnson’s 3 got here after South Carolina almost blew a 22-point lead within the second half. The benefit was all the way down to 74-72 when Staley referred to as timeout to arrange a play that was speculated to go to Kamilla Cardoso, who led the crew with 22 factors. The Gamecocks’ star middle was being double-teamed when she caught the ball, so she handed it to Johnson for the three.“I used to be open, and all I may suppose was, let it go. I don’t need to lose,” mentioned Johnson, who scored 14 factors. “Simply going from final yr. No one can sag off me this yr, and I take that very private. And I get within the fitness center day by day and put up reps and I feel that’s the place it comes from, the arrogance.”Final season, Iowa sagged off Johnson within the Closing 4 and the technique paid off because the Hawkeyes ended South Carolina’s undefeated season. Johnson acquired within the fitness center and have become a greater 3-pointer shooter this season, hitting 8% extra of her photographs from behind the arc.“I see the work that Raven places in each single day. Each single day she will get photographs up, earlier than or after follow,” Staley mentioned. “They’ve a quota to fulfill every day. I see that earlier than. I see that after. So I don’t take into consideration final yr. I don’t take into consideration any of that relating to Raven.”South Carolina is three wins away from finishing the tenth good season in NCAA Division I girls’s basketball historical past. Subsequent up for the Gamecocks is third-seeded Oregon State, which knocked off Notre Dame earlier Friday.The Gamecocks (35-0) had run via their first two video games in March Insanity, profitable by 52 and 47. They confronted a a lot greater problem from fourth-seeded Indiana (26-6).South Carolina constructed a 22-point lead within the third quarter earlier than Indiana acquired going behind Sydney Parrish, who led the crew with 21 factors.The Hoosiers, who had been making an attempt to tug off the largest comeback in NCAA Match historical past, acquired inside 74-72 on Mackenzie Holmes’ layup with 1:08 left. That’s when Johnson responded along with her 3.Holmes then hit one other layup to make it 77-74.The Gamecocks hit solely two of 4 free throws within the ultimate 21 seconds to depart the door open for a miraculous comeback, however Indiana couldn’t convert on the offensive finish, lacking two contested 3-pointers within the ultimate 15 seconds.“We’re very disillusioned. Felt like if we had a couple of extra minutes the result could be a bit of completely different for us tonight,” Indiana coach Teri Moren mentioned.South Carolina regarded prefer it was going to steamroll one other opponent. It led 34-28 halfway via the second quarter earlier than happening a 15-4 run to shut the half up 49-32. All however two of these factors got here on the within.On the defensive finish, Cardoso bottled up Holmes. She missed her first 5 photographs earlier than lastly hitting a runner with lower than a minute to go within the half. Holmes completed with 12 factors.The lead ballooned to 22 factors early within the third quarter earlier than the Hoosiers used a 10-0 run to get inside 61-50 with simply over three minutes left within the interval. After the Gamecocks prolonged the benefit again to fifteen, Indiana closed inside 65-55 on the finish of the interval. South Carolina will face Oregon State within the Elite Eight on Sunday at 1 p.m.