In their best season since spring 2016, Texas women’s basketball has clinched their first Final Four berth since 2003. Fittingly, they will play fellow SEC powerhouse South Carolina, who they’ve faced three times so far this season, to determine the matchup in this year’s national championship.
“I know I’m not their world, but they are my world,” head coach Vic Schaefer said of his team after they beat TCU to clinch the Final Four spot.
Texas and South Carolina split their regular season two-game series, with South Carolina winning 67-50 at home and Texas prevailing 66-62 at the Moody Center. In the SEC tournament championship, South Carolina defeated Texas 64-45.
Now, the two teams will meet for the fourth and final time this season, and the stakes are higher than ever.
Texas’ journey in this year’s NCAA tournament has been dominant, beginning with a 105-61 win in the Round of 64 against 16-seed William and Mary, the Colonial Athletic Association tournament champion.
Forward Taylor Jones, Texas’ main anchor in the paint this year, led scoring in Round of 64 with 19 points. Forward Kyla Oldacre led rebounds with 15 and guard Rori Harmon led total assists with eight.
Texas played eight-seed Illinois in the Round of 32 in what would be a more competitive game, winning 65-48. Forward Madison Booker led with 20 points, Oldacre once again led rebounds with seven and Harmon again led assists with seven.
In the Sweet 16, Texas played against five-seed Tennessee, another SEC powerhouse, where they played a close game through the fourth quarter, eventually eking out a 67-59 win. Booker led points with 17, Jones led rebounds with eight and guard Bryanna Preston led assists with four.
There were five lead changes that left Tennessee ahead with less than eight minutes left on the clock, but the Horns pulled it out in the end against one of the nation’s more elite offenses.
In both the Round of 32 and Sweet 16, Texas started slow on offense, but their defense kept the scores of opposing teams low and scored just enough to win. This brought up concerns before their Elite 8 matchup against two-seeded TCU’s highly-balanced team. The Horned Frogs had top-50 offensive and defensive stats, the second-best three-point threat in the nation in guard Madison Conner and the almighty Hailey Van Lith, one of the best all-around players in the NCAA in the last five years, leaving Longhorn fans nervous that another slow start may lead to an earlier exit than expected.
Texas quashed those fears, starting the game with the lead and refusing to relinquish it once. The Longhorns won 58-47. Booker led points with 18 and rebounds with six, while Harmon led assists with five to propel Texas to their first regional championship and Final Four berth since 2003, when the Horns were led by the legendary Jody Conradt.
“These are the things you work for and you dream for and it’s fun, but you know, sometimes you look back like, dang, we’ve been through a lot,” Booker said after the TCU win.
South Carolina’s journey also began as the one-seed in their region, and their first matchup was against the Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion, 16-seed Tennessee Tech. The Gamecocks were dominant throughout, annihilating the Golden Eagles 108-48.
Forward Joyce Edwards led points with 22, forward Chloe Kitts led rebounds with six and guard Tessa Johnson led assists with six.
Next up for the Gamecocks was a matchup with the nine-seed Indiana in the Round of 32. Throughout the first half, the Hoosiers kept it close, but the Gamecocks stormed back in the second half and didn’t trail for the remainder of the game, winning 64-53.
After the weekday break, they met four-seed Maryland, who put up a valiant fight. However, in the final three minutes, South Carolina did enough to win by four, and the final score was 71-67.
In the Elite 8, the Gamecocks faced the two-seed Duke in a hard-fought match all the way through. In the fourth, with the game tight between the two teams, South Carolina did what they do best, winning 54-50 in clutch time in a very defensively scored game. Kitts led points with 14, and forward Sania Feagin led rebounds with eight and assists with three, propelling South Carolina to their fifth straight Final Four berth and sixth under coach Dawn Staley.
Texas and South Carolina were two of the main contenders for the SEC championship throughout the regular season. Both teams have starters and supporting casts that can perform when their teams need them, both teams have top-tier coaching and fanbases, and overall the matchup between two very evenly-matched teams is set to captivate fans across the country.
“We’ve been through everything — conditioning, tired, on the ground, gassed out,” Booker said after the Elite 8 matchup.
In each matchup against South Carolina, the winner had more rebounds, although not by much, and in Texas’ one win, Booker had 20 points. The SEC Player of the Year is important to Texas’ success, and she failed to score more than 10 in either loss to South Carolina. Most importantly, South Carolina finds the most success against Texas when they can overpower their defense and build an early lead.
“We played really well at our place, and had a bad quarter in the SEC Tournament … they put it on us in the first half at their place,” Schaefer said. “We have a ton of experiences to draw from and learn from. We (have) got to learn and be different.”
The Longhorns play the Gamecocks in the Final Four Friday, April 4 at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
