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College Football

South Carolina women’s basketball wins national championship

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

South Carolina women’s basketball has its first national championship in school history, knocking off Mississippi State 67-55 on Sunday.

One day after a heartbreaking Final Four loss for the Gamecocks men’s basketball team, the women’s squad gave fans in Columbia something to celebrate, beating MSU for the third time this season.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 7-1 lead, but the Gamecocks quickly adjusted, and led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter. South Carolina’s 19-5 run in the first half help widened the lead to 31-18. MSU cut the deficit to 10 points at halftime, 36-26.

The Gamecocks took attacked the paint in the first half, where 21-of-26 field goal attempts came. USC did not try a three-pointer in the first 20 minutes.

South Carolina widened the lead in the third quarter to 14 points, but Mississippi State grabbed the momentum with a 9-0 run, cutting it to 45-40. At the end of the quarter, USC’s lead was back up to 52-44.

MSU cut to within four during the fourth quarter, 54-50, but the Gamecocks always had an answer. A’ja Wilson dominated the fourth quarter, with her eight points in the quarter giving South Carolina a comfortable 66-52 lead late. Wilson led all scorers with 23 points.

The All-SEC championship game brought commissioner Greg Sankey to Dallas, a day after he was in Phoenix for the South Carolina-Gonzaga men’s game. It was the fourth NCAA championship decided by SEC teams since 2011.

South Carolina coach Will Muschamp tweeted his support prior to tipoff, but did not appear to have made the trip.

He tweeted his congratulations after the game:

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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