South Carolina Gamecocks Sweet 16 Update: Elite Eight Bound with Dawn Staley

2024-03-29 20:42:00

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks (34-0) are the No. 1 overall seed for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. They continue their journey into March Madness at 5 p.m. Friday (ESPN) with a Sweet 16 game against No. 4 Indiana at MVP Arena.

The State’s Payton Titus and Chapel Fowler are on site from Albany, New York to provide updates from the game. Follow along as USC tries to reach the halfway point of an NCAA national championship run.

First team locks in Elite Eight spot

One half of the Albany 1 regional championship is set.

No. 3 Oregon State upset No. 2 Notre Dame, 70-65, in the early game Friday to advance to Sunday’s Elite Eight game against the winner of South Carolina-Indiana game.

The Beavers held on late despite committing 26 turnovers and got 20 points from forward Timea Gardiner and 18 from forward Raegan Beers.

It’s Oregon State’s first Elite Eight appearance and first win over a top two seed since 2018.

Notre Dame had won 10 games in a row, including an ACC Tournament championship run, before falling in the Sweet 16. Star guard Hannah Hidalgo had 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

A chance to be elite

South Carolina has qualified for eight Elite Eights in program history and seven in the Staley era. The Gamecocks have also made three straight Elite Eight rounds dating back to 2021. (The tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic.)

The last time USC missed the fourth round of the tournament came in 2018-19, when the Gamecocks were a No. 4 seed and lost to No. 1 Baylor (and now-LSU coach Kim Mulkey) in the Sweet 16 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Point spread

Indiana is the highest seed South Carolina has faced this tournament. Not a problem, according to oddsmakers. ESPN BET has USC as a 16.5-point betting favorite over Indiana as tip-off approaches.

The Gamecocks were a whopping 55.5-point favorite in their NCAA Tournament opener vs. No. 16 Presbyterian, and they were a 21.5-point favorite against No. 8 UNC in the second round. The latter point spread turned heads, but it was more than accurate: South Carolina beat UNC by 47 points last Sunday to get here.

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