A'ja Wilson and the Gamecocks headed to the locker room down 29-20, but they didn’t panic. They’d been there before.
South Carolina is no stranger to coming from behind, having mounted comebacks against Mississippi State twice, UCLA, and Arizona State among others. After scoring just six points in the second quarter, the Gamecocks needed an offensive spark to get back in it.
They found it.
South Carolina controlled the tempo from the start of the second half, just as Dawn Staley envisioned.
“I just wanted to get our kids to the locker room at halftime because I knew, no matter how many points we were down, we could utilize our speed to get back into play,” Staley said.
“Coach basically just said that we’ve gotta pick up the energy and push the tempo a little bit, because they pushed the tempo in the first half,” Bianca Cuevas-Moore added.
The story is the same as usual. South Carolina punished Stanford in the third quarter, using a 12-0 run to win the period 21-8 and grab a lead the Gamecocks would never relinquish.
South Carolina has dominated the third quarter all season, outscoring opponents by nearly five points per game in the period. The secret? Confidence in the locker room.
“We knew it was our quarter,” Doniyah Cliney said. “After every halftime, we knew that we had to come in and fight.”
Down nine and 20 minutes away from a potential season-ending loss, the Gamecocks turned to their All-American, who scored just four points in the first half.
At halftime, Wilson, one of three team captains, told her team that there was plenty of basketball left to play, just as there was when South Carolina trailed by six at halftime during the Second Round against Arizona State.
She proved it with her play in the second half, finishing one point shy of a double-double in the final 20 minutes alone. Wilson matched a career-high with 19 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, helping the Gamecocks to a 19-8 advantage in second-chance points.
Wilson didn’t have a great shooting performance, as she was facing consistent double and triple-teams, so she focused even harder on the glass.
“I just kind of let the game come to me, whatever category it is on the stat sheet,” Wilson said. I want to make an impact on my team any way I can… I just tried to get every ball I could.”
With Wilson grabbing every ball she could and Gray and Cuevas-Moore pushing the tempo on offense, South Carolina was a completely different team in the second half.
Even with a poor shooting night from Kaela Davis (2-of-15), the Gamecocks were able to outscore Stanford by 18 after the break, thanks to the message from Staley and the confidence in the locker room. South Carolina certainly won’t want to be trailing at halftime in the national championship, but the Gamecocks’ experience playing from behind served them well in the Final Four.