Half of the NCAA tournament Final Four tickets have been punched, with South Carolina and NC State headed to Cleveland.
The No. 1 Gamecocks remain undefeated with wins over Indiana in the Sweet 16 and Oregon State in the Elite Eight, and are now 36-0 on the season. South Carolina is looking to become the first undefeated D-I women’s basketball team since UConn won the national title in 2016.
This is their fourth straight Final Four appearance, and it comes after losing virtually their entire starting five from a year ago.
"The odds said that we shouldn't make it back to the Final Four," coach Dawn Staley said. "Just proud of our team and for them believing in themselves. They created a certain level of chemistry and culture, and they stuck with it, and then they allowed us to coach them. They trusted us to coach them, even when it didn't feel good to them personally at different times of the season."
NC State, meanwhile, took down No. 1 seed Texas after defeating No. 2 seed Stanford in the Sweet 16. The Longhorns are the first 1-seed to fall in the tournament.
Aziaha James had 27 points in NC State's Elite Eight win, including seven of the team’s nine 3-pointers, to help the Wolfpack to their first Final Four since 1998. They’ve never made the national championship game, and they’ll need to go through South Carolina in order to do it.
NC State junior Saniya Rivers is no stranger to South Carolina, having won a title with the Gamecocks as a freshman in 2022 before transferring to NC State.
"We’ve been singing the same song all year, and, now, everybody’s singing with us," Rivers said after the win over Texas.
And NC State coach Wes Moore is also feeling good about his team’s chances against the tournament's No. 1 overall seed.
"Obviously, [South Carolina is the] best team in the country," Moore said. "But you're not playing a four-out-of-seven series. You're playing one game.
"Right now you could tell me we're playing the Trail Blazers, and I'd feel, 'OK. We're in the Final Four. Bring them on.'"
