Duke dives into SC territory in second round

The Blue Devils, a popular pick for a deep run based on its fast finish, fell to SC 88-81 on Sunday night, capping a miserable opening weekend for the ACC.

Rakym Felder then gave the Gamecocks their biggest lead so far in the game, 82-69, forcing another Wojciechowski timeout with 4:40 to play.

Ruthy Hebard finished with 23 points, including the game-winning basket with 5.5 seconds remaining, and blocked Feyonda Fitzgerald’s layup at the buzzer. She grabbed 11 boards and made each of her seven free throw attempts, and the Hopkins, S.C., native added two blocks on the defensive end.

Chima Moneke scored 20 points to lead the 16th-seeded Aggies (23-13), who were in their first NCAA Tournament.

Lambert was averaging 7.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists, but Duke is still loaded with productive high-level players.

Of the 16 second-round NCAA Tournament games played Saturday and today, the Duke-South Carolina matchup is the only one in which the lower-seeded team is significantly closer to the game site than the higher-seeded team.

Carolina held five point edge after the first quarter with Kaela Davis and Wilson leading the way.

Chris Silva and Duane Notice pumped in 17 apiece and Rakym Felder provided 15 points for SC.

The Gamecocks, who participated in the ACC alongside Duke until 1971, had some bad luck (and were the victims of poor long-term planning) a few years after that.

Wojciechowski said his team could not match the Gamecocks’ physicality in the second half.

Duke was the team that had the most impressive collection of returning players in college basketball, led by star shooting guard Grayson Allen and front court rock Amile Jefferson. But Gray, a 6-foot guard and transfer from North Carolina, scored 20 of her points in the paint and tied her best rebounding night of her career with eight by halftime. Duke is holding opponents to 33.4 percent shooting, which ranks third nationally. The Jayhawks head to the Midwest Region final in Kansas City as the top seed and will be favored – by seed – to reach the Final Four. “That was a good one”.

It looked like that streak might end Friday after Oklahoma State opened the second half on a 12-5 run to take a 52-46 lead. He called SEC Player of the Year Sindarious Thornwell “the best unheralded great player in the United States” and described SC “as good as a defensive team as we’ve played against”.

Lexie Brown and Oderah Chidom finished with 11 points apiece for Duke, which will play 10th-seeded OR (21-13) in the second round Monday night.

Duke: The Blue Devils had lived by the 3-pointer much of the season and when those didn’t fall in the second half, it surely cost them. The Golden Eagles answered with a 7-0 run to regain the lead, but Carolina answered with a 7-0 run of its own to retake the lead, 51-49, with 15:54 to play.

It might get less fun come Sunday.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks had not won an NCAA Tournament game in 44 years coming into the weekend. “But the next year, they won the ACC tournament on a jump-ball play against North Carolina”. It’s also just the second time that Carolina has had back-to-back seasons with double-digit league wins, as the Gamecocks posted 11 last season. Sunday marked the sixth time this season the guard has scored at least 20 points in a game this season. It’s the first Sweet 16 berth in SC program history.