Near perfection: Unbeaten South Carolina reaches Women's Final Four national title game

CLEVELAND — Perfection is within their reach again.

After coming close to achieving it in 2023, the South Carolina Gamecocks hope to exorcise some demons and reclaim their spot atop the women's college basketball mountain.

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South Carolina used to a big third quarter to pull away from North Carolina State 78-59 in Friday's Women's Final Four semifinal at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The 37-0 Gamecocks will face Iowa in Sunday's national championship game.

They made it this far without returning one starter from last year's national championship team.

"It doesn't feel real," Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao said. "I'm so happy we made it.

"We've got one more game left, and we're really excited for that."

A semifinal loss to Iowa derailed South Carolina's hopes for a perfect season last year. After dismantling NC State in the third quarter Friday, the Gamecocks were not going to fall short of the title game again.

South Carolina outscored NC State 29-6 in the quarter to turn a one-point halftime lead into a runaway. After Bree Hall hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds, the Gamecocks' lead was 61-37.

The Gamecocks hit five 3s in the third quarter and outscored the Wolfpack 17-1 over the final 6:50. NC State was held without a field goal over the final 7:48 of the quarter.

Some of South Carolina's players were stunned when they found out they held the Wolfpack to six points in the quarter.

"We were just like shocked because it didn't feel like that," Paopao said. "It felt like we were just out there being locked in on offense and defense. We just played the game we know how to play."

Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley liked the way her team turned up the heat defensively in the third quarter.

"We put a lot more pressure on them to go deeper in their offense," Staley said. "We put a lot more pressure on the basketball, especially their point guards, the people that were initiating their offense.

"If you get them to play a little bit outside of their comfort zone, you're disrupting and dictating. I thought we did a lot more of that in the third quarter. That created some easy buckets for us."

Center Kamilla Cardoso was practically unstoppable for South Carolina. The Brazilian scored 22 points on 10 of 12 shooting. She also grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Gamecocks received a scare late in the second quarter when Cardoso had to go the training room with an apparent injury. She returned in the second half and played almost eight minutes.

"She's all right," Staley said.

Gamecocks forward Ashlyn Watkins called Cardoso "a warrior." Paopao said she is "a beautiful Brazilian warrior."

"She's just awesome, man," Paopao said. "She's going to play through some pain. That's who she is, and she loves playing the game. She's going to push through that.

"Knowing we have one more game, she's definitely going to be ready."

Watkins was a force in 30 minutes off the bench for South Carolina. She grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds, including 12 in the second half.

"I think it was just doing whatever I could to help the team," Watkins said. "(Twenty rebounds) wasn't really a goal of mine. I just went out there and played my best basketball."

Staley called Watkins her team's X-factor against NC State.

"Ash is Ash," Staley said. "Ash is she's a leaper. She's a jumper. She's a reactor. For her to come through for us was big. We don't win the game without her contributions."

Raven Johnson scored 13 points for South Carolina. Paopao finished with 10

Aziaha James led NC State (31-7) with 20 points. She helped keep the Wolfpack close until the Gamecocks' big third quarter.

For a team NC State head coach Wes Moore affectionally called "the party crashers" in this Final Four, it was a tough way to go out.

"We've had an unbelievable season," Moore said. "I'm proud of these young ladies, the run we've been on. This stinks to end it this way, but I'm sure after we've had a little bit of time away from it and can reflect, we have a lot to be proud of."

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This article originally appeared on The Repository: South Carolina beats NC State, advances to national championship game