Haley Jones made the final basket of the game and Stanford made two defensive stops in the last 30 seconds to beat South Carolina 66-65 in the NCAA Tournament Four Finals semifinal on Friday, April 2, at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Jones scored 24 points and Lexie Hull had 18, while the cardinal led almost the entire second half, but had to recover after falling behind at the last minute.
Stanford (30-2) faces the Arizona Wildcats in the championship game on Sunday night.
The opening semifinal was a close match in which each possession seemed crucial.
Zia Cooke had 25 points and Destanni Henderson, who almost alone carried the Gamecocks in the final stretch, finished with 18 points. Aliyah Boston scored 11 points for South Carolina (26-5).
Stanford broke a 52-52 draw with six consecutive points. Henderson’s 3 points narrowed the gap to 60-59 with 2:25 remaining.
Then, losing to 64-59, Henderson scored the next six points with a three-point play followed by a 3-pointer at the 41-second mark that put Gamecocks in the lead for the first time since the first quarter.
Jones bounced back after an offensive rebound before a South Carolina timeout. Then Stanford’s Ashten Prechtel came up with a Henderson robbery.
Boston did a steal, but teammate Brea Beal and Boston, who were aiming for a winning reversal, missed two potential entry shots in the last seconds.
Cooke accumulated 21 of South Carolina’s first 40 points, but Gamecocks were down 43-40 at the time.
Stanford led by 31-25 at the break and then scored the first basket in the second half and then led by 37-28. Gamecocks drew 45-45.
The cardinal made five of the six three-point attempts in three quarters and missed two long-range shots in the last quarter. The cardinal hit 11 of 12 in free throws for the game.
South Carolina defeated Texas 62-34 in the regional final earlier this week. Stanford hit the 34-point mark just minutes after the third quarter.