It was a matchup between the country’s No.1 and 2 teams. South Carolina came into the ranked No.1, and Stanford No.2. The Gamecocks came back to beat the Cardinal 76-71 in overtime.
Stanford led by ten points heading into the fourth quarter, and South Carolina to scored them 17-7 in the quarter to force overtime. Zia Cooke’s layup with 7:54 to go in the fourth got the Gamecocks within 54-50. Neither team scored for nearly the next four minutes.
Finally, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston hit a jumper with two seconds left to force overtime. Then, with South Carolina up 70-69, Bree Hall hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in overtime to put the game away.
Boston overcame early foul trouble to score 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Cooke had 14 points but struggled shooting from the field, shooting 3-13 from the field. Hall added 12 points off the bench and was a critical factor in the Gamecocoks’ huge road win.
South Carolina’s tough defense played a hand in the comeback victory; they held Staford to 40.9% shooting from the field and helped force 22 turnovers. Conversely, the Gamecocks’ offense struggled, shooting only 38.4% from the field and 29.4% from beyond the arc.
Cameron Brin led Stanford in scoring with 25 points; she played an excellent game on both ends before fouling out. She added rebounds and four block shots. Haley Jones struggled, shooting 5-19 from the field and scoring 11 points. Jones forced many shots down the stretch of the game and hurt Stanford’s offense.
KiKi Iriafen added 11 points, but this seemed like a classic Stanford and South Carolina game, where the Cardinal gets out to a decent lead, and the Gamecocks turn the defensive pressure up, and it hurts Stanford’s offense. You can not turn the ball over 22 times and expect to bear the No.1 team in the country.
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