Loss’s impact can’t overshadow Welch
TAMPA, Fla.
THE REALIZATION of a season-ending loss in the Final Four came fast and hard to South Carolina senior Aleighsa Welch. So fast and so hard that it took junior teammate Khadijah Sessions to console her.
Welch could not make it through the handshake line with the Notre Dame players, who stopped by one-by-one to pat her on the back. Then with the final score of Notre Dame 66 and USC 65 on the scoreboard behind them, Sessions helped the sobbing Welch off the Amalie Arena floor.
Just like that, one of the most illustrious careers in the history of USC women’s basketball was over. A sparkling 113-26 record for Welch’s four-season career, a pair of SEC regular-season championships, an SEC tournament title and a Final Four appearance were all but forgotten for the moment.
Welch was consumed by the fact she never would again wear the USC uniform. Her quest to capture the program’s first national championship had fallen two wins short.
Following a tear-filled news conference, Welch retreated to the USC locker room, sat in one corner by herself and continued to wipe away tears, using her jersey as a handkerchief.
“The hardest part is swallowing the fact that my career is over. That’s the part that hurts the most,” Welch said. “I just really want to go to everybody and say I’m sorry because I wanted to win the national championship. I wanted to cap off the season that way. So, to fall and to come up short is hard.”
USC came up short despite a gallant effort at the end.
The Gamecocks trailed 64-52 with under eight minutes remaining. As USC broke from its huddle following a timeout, Welch grabbed teammate Tiffany Mitchell by the arm.
“Just give me all you got,” Welch said she told Mitchell. “Just give me all you got.”
Welch and Mitchell seemed to will USC back into the game. During a 13-0 run that followed, Welch scored six points and Mitchell four. Welch’s follow layup off a missed 3-point attempt by Mitchell gave USC a 65-64 lead with 1:12 remaining – its first and only advantage of the game.
“At no point in time, when we’re down, do I feel like the game is over,” Welch said. “We’ve been down plenty of times this season and we’ve always been able to fight back and get ourselves back in the game. ... It was a matter of how long it took us to get back into it. It wasn’t unfamiliar territory.”
USC had rallied from behind to defeat both North Carolina and Florida State in the Greensboro Regional. In both games, USC made crucial plays at the end to win. This time, Notre Dame made those big plays.
The Fighting Irish first got a game-winning follow shot from Madison Cable – her only points of the game – with 16 seconds remaining, then threw up a picket fence to prevent Mitchell from hitting another game-winning basket in the final seconds, as she did against North Carolina.
Suddenly, a career that began by leading a charge of instate players to join Dawn Staley’s USC program, progressed to being the toast of the SEC and culminated in contending for a national championship was over for Welch.
“(This program has) meant everything to me,” Welch said. “It’s been my second family. It’s been the rock I’ve needed, and it’s been my happy place. When everything else is kind of hectic and going on, I always knew with my teammates and with my coaches that I was in a good place.
“So, to just look back to my freshman year and my first game and to fast-forward to now, and realizing how fast it all went by, I just wish I had more time.”
There is no more time for Welch and her USC career. For Sunday night, perhaps into Monday and through next week, and maybe next month, Welch only will remember how her season and career ended tantalizingly short of playing for the national championship.
Eventually, though, she will come to realize the immense impact she had on the emergence of USC as a nationally prominent women’s basketball program. That should not soon be forgotten.
This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Loss’s impact can’t overshadow Welch."