Gamecocks defeat Duke, on track for repeat title

WOMEN’S NCAA

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South Carolina guard Raven Johnson (25) and forward Sania Feagin (20) pressure Duke forward Toby Fournier (35) as she falls to the court during the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday in Birmingham, Ala. GERALD HERBERT – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Birmingham, Ala. >> Dawn Staley took a victory lap around the court, giving high-fives to fans and South Carolina’s band and even autographing the rear end of a baby’s pants.

The Gamecocks’ coach has her team back in a familiar place — the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament. This time, South Carolina had to grind out a close game to get there.

Chloe Kitts scored 14 points and the defending champion Gamecocks reached the national semifinals for a fifth straight year, beating Duke 54-50 on Sunday.

“It is not going to look pretty. It’s not. There’s stretches in each game that does not look pretty,” Staley said. “Some of it’s not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision. How we practice. But you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that’s presented in front of you. We’ll do that. If we’re not scoring a lot of points, we’ll up our defense.”

South Carolina did just that.

Now, Staley’s top-seeded Gamecocks are two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat as champions since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. South Carolina will play the winner of the Texas-TCU game that takes place Monday night.

The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Florida.

UCLA 72, LSU 65 >> Lauren Betts had 17 points and seven rebounds despite spending the entire second quarter on the bench, and top overall seed UCLA reached its first Final Four of the NCAA Tournament with a victory over LSU.

The 6-foot-7 Betts added six blocks for the Bruins (34-2), who will face the winner of Monday’s game between Southern California and UConn. The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Florida.

Gabriela Jaquez had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Bruins and Timea Gardiner finished with 15 points, helping to pick up the slack went Betts went to the bench after committing two first-quarter fouls.

“Credit to my teammates for holding it down while I was out,” Betts said during the trophy ceremony.

UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball, but this was its first NCAA regional final victory in three tries.

LSU senior forward Aneesah Morrow’s nose was bloodied in a collision with teammate Sa’Myah Smith, but she checked back into her final game for the Tigers without any facial protection and finished with 15 points.

Flau’Jae Johnson scored 28 points to lead third-seeded LSU (31-6), which won the national title two years ago under coach Kim Mulkey but has now been eliminated in the last two Elite Eights.

The Tigers closed within 46-41 to start the fourth quarter. Betts’ layup extended the Bruins’ lead to 56-45 with 6:54 to go.

Johnson’s layup got the Tigers within 56-52 with 3:24 left, spurring an “LSU! LSU!” chant from the crowd. But the Tigers couldn’t get closer, and Jaquez made a 3-pointer with 1:30 left that all but sealed the Bruins’ win over the team that eliminated them from last year’s Sweet 16.