Final Four Firsts: South Carolina Vs. Gonzaga

He told trainers he couldn’t clear his vision in his right eye and headed to the locker room, his status unknown to the Zags. Sure, their record was sparkling.

They will play Mississippi State in an all-SEC matchup for the national title after the Lady Bulldogs upset UConn 66-64 in overtime.

The junior guard took a deep breath. “You’re going to have bad shooting nights at times. We don’t get down on ourselves, we find a way and the team has an incredible focus on the end result”.

That’s the result of Gonzaga’s 77-73 victory over SC in Saturday’s first national semifinal here at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Williams-Goss, a second-team All-American, led the Bulldogs to a 14-point lead in the second half but it disappeared quickly as the Gamecocks (26-11) went on a 14-point run to grab a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Can Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks force OR to play big, OR will UNC, who is the best offensive rebounding team in the country, be forced to play a smaller lineup to defend Brooks? SC hit just 26 % of its shots in the first half. Williams-Goss, a standout defender with a team-best 64 steals, is averaging 15.5 points in the NCAA Tournament but is just 19-of-61 shooting from the field. “There’s no such thing as not being nervous for a big game”, South Carolina’s Frank Martin said Monday during a teleconference with reporters. The over/under total for the game is listed at 152.5 points. I don’t care how many Final Fours you’ve played in, every time you show up for that game, you’re going to be nervous.

And yet the Gonzaga doubters persist.

The conference is still chasing the ghost of its last champion – Arizona – who last won it all exactly 20 years to the day yesterday. “She didn’t handle the double and triple teams well tonight, but she found a way to impact the game”, Staley said.

Gonzaga will play in its first NCAA men’s basketball title game after edging SC 77-73 on Saturday in the national semifinals. I think everybody is just ready to play the game.

Either way, Lloyd said he and the other coaches have been repeating the same piece of advice this week to all of the players on the bench. “They were Cinderella and all that pretty stuff in ’97”. Now, Williams-Goss and the Bulldogs are looking to overcome what they felt was a lack of attention put not just on their program but on west coast basketball as a whole. With greats like Joel Berry II and Kennedy Meeks and players like Luke Maye – who hit the game victor in the epic game against Kentucky in the Elite Eight – are role guys that can change games. Gonzaga, which is 21-7-2 against the spread across its last 30 games, has had an unfailing edge in low-post size with C Przemek Karnowski and C Zach Collins.

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