Dawn Staley has South Carolina back in a familiar place — the Final Four — and she got there this time with an entirely new starting lineup. Tessa Johnson scored 15 points and Kamilla Cardoso added 12 to help the undefeated Gamecocks to a 70-58 win over Oregon State on Sunday in the Albany 1 Regional Final of the women's NCAA Tournament. “Proud because we beat the odds,” Staley said.
Oregon State's bigs played huge and the Beavers held Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo in check on Friday to advance to the program's first regional final in six years. Timea Gardiner scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, while Raegan Beers added 18 points and 13 boards in the 70-65 win over the second-seeded Irish. Donovyn Hunter added 11 points for the third-seeded Beavers (27-7), who will face either overall top-seed South Carolina or Indiana on Sunday.
Cameron Brink had a career-high 23 rebounds and 25 points as No 4 Stanford claimed the Pac-12 regular-season title with a 67-63 victory over No. 11 Oregon State on Thursday night. Brink, a 6-foot-4 senior forward who leads the nation in blocked shots, was 11 of 15 from the field, pulled down eight offensive rebounds, and had four assists and one block. The Cardinal (25-4, 14-3) beat Oregon State (22-6, 11-6) for the 14th straight time, and locked up the No. 1 seed in next week’s Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas.
Talia von Oelhoffen scored 18 points and No. 17 Oregon State played tough defense to hold No. 4 Colorado to its lowest scoring total of the season and beat the Buffaloes 65-59 on Sunday. It was Oregon State's fifth straight win and first top-5 road victory in the team's history. The winning streak by the Beavers (20-3, 9-3 Pac-12) began with a win over the then-No. 3 Buffaloes on Jan. 26.