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Top-10 Elite Eight Matchup Set for Sunday
Women's Basketball  . 

Top-10 Elite Eight Matchup Set for Sunday

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – No. 2/2 South Carolina is set for a rematch against No. 7/7 Duke in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in Birmingham, Ala., at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.

Gamecock Notables

  • South Carolina is playing in its fifth-straight NCAA Elite Eight, the longest active streak in the nation. It is the Gamecocks’ eighth Regional Final appearance under Head Coach Dawn Staley with a 6-1 in those previous final games.

  • The Gamecock bench continues to thrive, averaging 41.7 points per NCAA Tournament game on 54.7 percent shooting. They have outscored their opponent’s bench by 31.3 points per game in the tournament. For the season, the bench has scored 51.5 percent of the Gamecocks’ total points, leading the nation at 41.5 bench points per game.

  • South Carolina is 33-1 when tying or out-scoring its opponent in the paint. In their six postseason games, the Gamecocks have out-scored their opponents by 18.8 points per game in the paint.

  • The Gamecocks have faced a program-record 16 ranked teams already this season with their 13 wins coming by an average of 18.7 points. Defense has led the charge with those opponents scoring 61.6 points per game. Just four of the 16 games saw an opponent net 70 or more points while they failed to hit 60 points seven times.

  • South Carolina has out-rebounded its NCAA Tournament opponents by 18.3 boards per game. The Gamecocks’ 43.7 rebounds per game include 15.3 per outing from their guards. The biggest jump among the group has been from Tessa Johnson with her 4.3 boards per NCAA Tournament game more than double the 2.0 she averaged prior to the event.

  • Five of Chloe Kitt’s 11 double-doubles this season have come in the last eight games, including her 15-point, 11-rebound effort against Maryland on Friday. In that eight-game stretch, the junior forward averaged 14.3 points on 60.0 percent shooting, 9.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals in just 23..0 minutes per game.

  • Guard MiLaysia Fulwiley is the Gamecocks’ leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament, netting 13.7 points per game on 55.2 percent shooting. She is tied with Te-Hina Paopao for the team lead with 3.0 assists per game and has added 2.0 blocks and 1.7 steals per game in the event as well.

  • Senior Bree Hall is doing it all in the NCAA Tournament so far, lifting her scoring to 8.0 points per game at the event, shooting 53.3 percent from the field, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range, on top of her usual defensive prowess.

 

By the Numbers
6 –Six Gamecocks have scored 20 or more points in a game at least once this season.

61.2 –The Gamecocks are shooting 61.2 percent in the paint in the NCAA Tournament.

 

The Duke Series
The Gamecocks are 8-2 all-time against Duke, including a 7-1 mark in the Dawn Staley era (beginning 2008-09).

South Carolina has won the last five meetings overall and the last five in which both teams have been ranked.

Earlier this season, then-No. 3/4 South Carolina topped then-No. 8/9 Duke 81-70 in Columbia on Dec. 5. The Gamecocks stormed out to a 28-12 lead after the first quarter behind 61.1 percent shooting, including 4-of-5 accuracy from 3-point range. After South Carolina took a 51-31 lead into halftime, the Blue Devils won the second half 39-30 as both teams shot at least 50.0 percent in the final 20 minutes.

 

The Staley File
In her 25th season as a head coach, Dawn Staley has a .773 (645-189) winning percentage, which ranks seventh in the nation among active head coaches with at least 15 years of experience and ninth all-time.

Staley is one of just two women’s basketball coaches to lead their teams to multiple 40-game win streaks in NCAA history with the Gamecocks’ recent program-record 43-game streak ranking seventh longest in NCAA history. She is the first Black head coach to win multiple national championships in men’s or women’s basketball, the fifth women’s coach to win at least three NCAA titles and one of just 11 men’s or women’s coaches to hit that mark.

Now in her 17th season with the Gamecocks, Staley is the program’s all-time winningest coach (472) with a program-record 14 postseason appearances. She accounts for all six of the Gamecocks’ Final Four appearances (2015, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and the only NCAA National Championships in program history (2017, 2022, 2024).

Staley’s nine SEC regular-season championships trail only Pat Summitt’s 16 in league history, and her seven SEC Coach of the Year awards trail Summitt’s league record by just one. Staley’s 214 SEC regular-season wins are the most among active league coaches and third all-time – behind just Summitt (Tennessee, 306) and Andy Landers (Georgia, 273). She was the second-fastest to the 200-win mark in league history with her 255 games trailing Summitt’s mark of 229. Staley’s .793 SEC winning percentage (214-56) is second only to Summitt (.874) among coaches in the league at least five seasons. She owns the SEC record for consecutive regular-season conference victories with a 57-game streak that began in the 2021-22 season and ended in 2024-25.

 

Block Party
South Carolina annually ranks among the best shot blocking teams in the country, and, with every Gamecock recording at least one block this season, they are continuing the tradition. Even without a dominant center and the loss of top shot blocker Ashlyn Watkins to injury, the Gamecocks are fifth in the nation with 5.9 blocks per game, including 2.28 per game from guards.

SEC All-Defensive Team selection Sania Feagin is sixth in the SEC with a team-high 1.53 blocks per game, including 2.06 in SEC play, which ranked second the league. MiLaysia Fulwiley was the league’s top shot-blocking guard in conference play, ranking 10th with 0.94 blocks per SEC game.

 

Quarter Breakdown
South Carolina‘s defense has held an opponent to single digits in a quarter 18 times this season, including eight against ranked teams. The Gamecocks have out-scored their opponent by 10 or more points in a quarter 42 times. The scoring differential is largest in the third quarter (+6.3), and the Gamecocks are best on the boards in the second (+3.1).