COLUMBIA, S.C. — Bree Hall had 11 points and Chloe Kitts scored all her 10 points in the second half as top seed South Carolina pulled away after trailing at halftime to beat ninth-seeded Indiana 64-53 on Sunday in the women’s NCAA Tournament and reach the Sweet 16 for the 11th straight time.
Kitts added 10 rebounds for the Gamecocks (32-3), who will take on either fourth-seeded Maryland or fifth-seeded Alabama in the Birmingham 2 Regional next week. Those teams play Monday night.
Not that anyone at Colonial Life Arena was locking South Carolina into that game after a dreadful first-half performance where they shot just 10 of 29 and trailed the Hoosiers 26-25 at the break. But the Gamecocks came out on fire in the third quarter, hitting nine of their first 10 shots for a 20-7 run to take control.
When Hall’s third 3-pointer closed the surge, the Gamecocks had the game in hand and improved to 18-1 in their past four NCAA Tournaments.
Indiana couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Shay Ciezki had 12 points to lead Indiana.
Sania Feagin added 10 points for South Carolina, which improved to 18-0 in home NCAA Tournament games.
Takeaways
Indiana: The Hoosiers made sure they wouldn’t get blown out early, but didn’t have enough to handle the deep, talented defending champions over 40 minutes.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks got a wake up call from Indiana for a second straight year. After sleeping on a big lead in last year’s Sweet 16 before a 79-75 win, they struggled with the Hoosiers the first two quarters before pulling away. Count on coach Dawn Staley to use that poor first half as a lesson to this team going forward.
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