S.C. heads back to title game after ripping Texas

TAMPA, Fla. -- South Carolina has finally reached the moment it played for all season long: The Gamecocks are in the national championship game, with a chance to make history.

After overcoming another slow start, South Carolina blitzed Texas with a decisively dominant third quarter to put the game out of reach, winning 74-57 on Friday to clinch its spot in the title game Sunday.

South Carolina will now attempt to repeat as national champions for the first time in school history. The last team to win back-to-back titles was UConn, which won four straight from 2013-16.

South Carolina continued its dominance over Texas, winning the season series 3-1. The last two postseason games - the SEC tournament championship and the national semifinal - were not particularly close. Once again, South Carolina found ways to break down the vaunted Texas defense with its speed and athleticism, using transition buckets, points in the paint and timely 3-point shooting to win comfortably.

Dawn Staley is now 8-0 all-time against Texas coach Vic Schaefer in postseason games. After struggling in the last three rounds of the NCAA tournament, freshman Joyce Edwards showed off what made her such a dynamic player this season, making huge plays once again on the offensive and defensive ends.

Last week in Birmingham, Staley said they would need more production from Edwards if they wanted to win a national championship and would go to practice and simplify a few things for her to get going.

Whatever the coaches told her worked, as Edwards had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. But it may have been senior Te-Hina Paopao who played her best game. Paopao scored 14 points and was 3-of-4 from 3 as Texas struggled to guard her.

The game turned in the third quarter, when South Carolina outscored Texas 20-9 -including an 11-0 run late in the quarter that essentially sealed the win.

That might have been the turning point, but the game started to slip away from Texas in the first half when Madison Booker found herself in foul trouble early.

South Carolina came out flat to start the game, but its fortunes shifted when Booker, the SEC Player of the Year, picked up her second foul with 3:04 left in the first quarter.

Texas had a five-point lead at the time, but South Carolina outscored the Longhorns to close the quarter and take the lead.

Booker returned to the game with five minutes to play in the second quarter, and Texas was able to take back the lead. But with 2:29 to go before halftime, Booker picked up her third foul - the first time in her career she had three fouls in the first half of a game - after Tessa Johnson landed hard on a pass. Booker and Schaefer both took issue with the foul, yelling to the officials, "That's a bad call!" Replay showed minimal contact between the players.

That was enough, again, for South Carolina to rally. The Gamecocks turned a two-point deficit into a three-point halftime lead.

Booker only played nine minutes, and her presence was clear. With Booker in the game, Texas had a plus-eight advantage; With Booker on the bench, Texas was minus-11.

The lead was enough for South Carolina to keep building on once the third quarter began. For Schaefer, who led Texas back to the Final Four for the first time since 2003, another Final Four appearance ends in heartbreak - as he goes home from the Final Four for the third time in his career without winning the title.

For Staley and her Gamecocks, though, it's another opportunity to make history.