Lady Bears Advance to Elite 8

Saturday, March 30

Greensboro, N.C.

1:00 PM CT

Baylor

34-1

South Carolina

23-10

South Carolina

Baylor

Lady Bears Advance to Elite 8

3/30/2019 4:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Postgame Notes Postgame Quotes

DiDi Richards scored a career-high 25 points.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            GREENSBORO, N.C. – Baylor has so many weapons all over the floor, defenses tend to ignore DiDi Richards. They sleep on her.
            South Carolina paid the price.
            Matching her previous career-high by halftime, the 6-1 sophomore guard hit 11 of her 14 shots and scored a game-high 25 points to lead the top-seeded Lady Bears (34-1) to a 93-68 win over the fourth-seeded Gamecocks (23-10) and into the Elite Eight for the eighth time in the last 10 years.
            "I think we have the best passing posts you could ask for," said Richards, who hit five back-door layups off assists from Baylor's post players. "Our posts are really good at finding me, even the freshmen. .. . That's something that's going to happen if they continue to double-team our posts. I'm just thankful they were able to find me back-side."
            All five starters scored in double figures, including double-doubles by Lauren Cox and Kalani Brown, as the Lady Bears won their 26^thgame in a row and set up a showdown in Monday's 6 p.m. CDT region final against second-seeded Iowa (29-6). The Hawkeyes shook off a third-quarter challenge from third-seeded North Carolina State and won handily, 79-61.
            "This is just a stepping stone for our main goal, because we definitely want to get to Tampa (for the Final Four)," Richards said. "We're excited about getting to the Elite Eight, but it's not something we're going to settle for. We want to get to the Final Four."
            South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had labeled this as a matchup of Baylor's size versus the Gamecocks' speed. But, not even that went the way she hoped it would.
            Feasting on long outlet passes, Baylor finished with a somewhat surprising 25-9 edge in fast-break points.
            "So, we're pretty fast, too," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "We're not just a bunch of slugs running the floor with the two big girls. Those kids can get up and down the floor, and our guards are going to push it and we're going to wait a step or two for them to run foul line to foul line. We're going to run, we're not walking the ball up the floor. I thought that was big."
            Honestly, there wasn't much that didn't go Baylor's way. With a clear size advantage, the Lady Bears outrebounded the Gamecocks, 54-30, outscored them by 30 in the paint (58-28) and scored 18 second-chance points on 19 offensive boards.
            "We're clicking on all five cylinders," said Brown, who recorded her 38^thcareer double-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. "We're on a roll, so I just want to keep that going. And if we keep continuing to play how we're playing, I don't know, you might see us in Tampa."
            Stopped in the Sweet 16 by Oregon State last year, Baylor wasted no time in this one, streaking out to a double-digit lead in the first 5 ½ minutes. Richards, who had scored in double figures just once in the last 12 games, scored four buckets in that early stretch and gave the Lady Bears a 16-5 lead when Brown hit her on a back-door cut.
            "That's happened all year. They just reach each other," Mulkey said. "Particularly with DiDi, people don't think she's going to be an offensive threat, so she reads what her defender does and then she knows where to cut and when to cut. And they just have that connection. That's from playing a lot of games together."
            Baylor led 24-11 after the first quarter and stretched it to 49-23 by the halftime break with Richards and Brown leading the way with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
            To their credit, the Gamecocks refused to go away quietly. Trailing by as many as 30, they closed to within 64-48 on a free throw by Bianca Cuevas-Moore, a key part of South Carolina's 2017 national championship team.
            "You're down 26, so you gamble and you just try to make things happen," Mulkey said. "There were times where we didn't handle it well, but then we would score. We were fine."
            The Lady Bears answered SC's 10-2 run with three straight buckets, extending the lead to 70-48 on a second-chance basket by Brown and consecutive layups by Richards to cap off her career night.
            "They never gave up, they kept fighting," said Cox, who had 17 points, 14 rebounds and a team-high six assists and five blocks. "We just had to come together, just calm down and play our game. We just all kind of look at each other like, 'OK, we've got this. We've got to calm down, take a deep breath and slow the game down.'''
            That's what Mulkey calls "keeping a cool head in a hot game."
            "It's easy to start playing fast and just throwing it everywhere and turning it over," Brown said. "I think it just comes with experience. You have to think for a minute and be like, 'Hey, we're all right, we're OK, we're up.' We just tell each other that. We talk on the court all the time."
            Jackson and Landrum scored 12 points apiece for the Lady Bears, who shot a sizzling 52 percent from the floor. Te'a Cooper had 17, Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan 16 and Cuevas-Moore 13 for the Gamecocks, who were just 21-of-63 overall and 4-of-19 from outside the arc.
            "Baylor has all the key ingredients to be a national champion," Staley said. "They have size, they have athleticism, they have the ability to beat you at a lot of different places."
            And that includes Richards from her wing position. Don't forget about Baylor's designated defensive stopper.
            "DiDi is her own worst critic," Brown said. "When she misses a layup, nobody can get to her like herself. It's a mind thing with her. Me and (Cox) keep telling her she's all right, she's good. Lo and behold, 25 (points). I was like, 'Look at what you can do when you keep playing.'''
            While Baylor is trying to reach its fourth Final Four and first since 2012, Iowa has not been to the Final Four since 1993. Megan Gustafson, the espnW National Player of the Year, recorded her NCAA record-tying 33^rddouble-double of the season with 27 points and 12 rebounds in the win over North Carolina State.