Defending national champion South Carolina heads into its fifth Elite Eight in as many seasons on Sunday, facing a Duke team that enters uncharted territory in recent years for the program.
For No. 1 overall seed South Carolina (33-3), a 71-67 win over Maryland on Friday moved the Gamecocks closer to a third national title in four seasons and the sport’s first repeat championship since UConn won three in a row from 2014 through 2016.
“You are coming off a national championship, you are the targeted one,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said on Saturday. “Everybody wants to knock you off your throne. And with this particular team, they’ve never been in that situation where they’ve won and then they got to defend the championship.”
While the role of defending the title is new for most of the players on this South Carolina team, advancing this far in the tournament is not. Not so for Duke, which is playing in the program’s first Elite Eight since 2013.
The second-seeded Blue Devils (29-7) outlasted rival North Carolina in a grinding Sweet 16 matchup on Friday, 47-38. The win extended Duke’s winning streak to nine games.
“I don’t think that style points are something you’re worried about at any point in the tournament,” said Blue Devils coach Kara Lawson. “You have to get a feel for the game, and each game has its own identity and each game is going to present a problem set for you that you have to try and figure out. Sometimes those problem sets you can anticipate, sometimes you can’t.”
Something Duke can anticipate is South Carolina’s reliance on its interior game. Staley noted on Saturday her team is leading the nation on points in the paint, which comes through a combination of forwards Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards providing size and South Carolina’s perimeter players slashing to the rim effectively.
Both teams boast impressive depth. Two of Duke’s leading scorers — Toby Fournier at 13.1 points per game and Oluchi Okananwa at 10.2 — come off the bench.
Fournier returned to the lineup on Friday after missing the Blue Devils’ second-round win over Oregon due to an illness.
–Field Level Media
