Edwards, Makeer power South Carolina past TCU 78-52 to reach the Final Four
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Joyce Edwards scored 24 points and Agot Makeer added 18 to help South Carolina beat TCU 78-52 on Monday night to advance to the Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament . The top-seeded Gamecocks will face UConn in the Final Four in Phoenix on Friday night in a rematch of last season’s national championship game .
“You got to keep the game close, got to be able to score,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of the undefeated Huskies. “We aren’t going to be keeping them from 25 points under their average. You got to go pound for pound and be unafraid playing against an undefeated team.
” South Carolina (34-3) has now reached the Final Four in seven of the past nine seasons and won three national championships during that stretch. Staley has been at the helm for all of them, including the undefeated 2023-24 season. “Super proud of this team, a lot of unknowns coming into the season.
Our ranking and what people thought of us was off our history,” Staley said. “We had too many holes, but I’m happy we were able to fill them and compete on third weekend of NCAA Tournament. ” This was the first time that the Gamecocks really had been challenged in the NCAA Tournament.
They came into the game averaging nearly 100 points a game in their first three contests and were winning by an average of 45 points. The Gamecocks have so many offensive weapons making them tough to guard. The Horned Frogs (32-6) did a good job on the South Carolina guards, but had no answer for Edwards and Makeer.