Final Four field is set: South Carolina joins fellow No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA and Texas
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There were still seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but the South Carolina fans inside Golden 1 Center could feel what was coming. The Gamecocks were up 20 points against TCU, and the inevitable was brewing.
Thirteen minutes later, just after 8 p. m. local time, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was hugging her staff and players were jumping at midcourt as they prepared to cut down the nets in Sacramento.
Staley and the Gamecocks are headed back to the Final Four. And with that, the sport’s biggest weekend is set. The Gamecocks beat No.
3 seed TCU 78-52 in the Elite Eight to win the Sacramento 4 Regional on Monday night, making them the fourth and final team to punch their ticket to Phoenix. They’ll join UConn (which beat Notre Dame) and UCLA (which beat Duke) on Sunday, and Texas (which dismantled Michigan) earlier in the day to round out the field. As expected, all four of the remaining teams left are the No.
1 seeds, and they’re the same four teams that were in the Final Four last season. Get ready for some star power in the desert. The action starts Friday, when the Bruins get another crack at the Longhorns, and South Carolina looks to get back at UConn in a rematch of last year’s national championship game that the Huskies won big.