How to watch No. 1 South Carolina WBB vs. Indiana in NCAA Sweet 16
The No. 1 South Carolina women’s basketball team has reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in its quest for a 2024 national championship.
The Gamecocks and coach Dawn Staley are set to play No. 4 seed Indiana in the Sweet 16 on Friday afternoon (5 p.m., ESPN) in Albany, New York. A win would send USC to the Elite Eight on Sunday against either Notre Dame or Oregon State. Here’s how to watch, and what to know.
South Carolina WBB vs. Indiana game info
- Who: No. 1 South Carolina (34-0) vs. No. 4 Indiana (26-5)
- Where: MVP Arena in Albany, New York
- When: 5 p.m. Friday
- TV: ESPN
- Radio: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
- Stream: Via WatchESPN.com or the ESPN app
- Betting line: South Carolina by 15.5 points (ESPN BET)
- Next up: The winner of South Carolina-Indiana will advance to an Elite Eight game on Sunday afternoon and will face either No. 2 Notre Dame or No. 3 Oregon State (those two teams play each other earlier Friday in Albany)
Gamecocks taking care of business
Remember the SEC Tournament, when South Carolina nearly blew a 23-point lead and needed Kamilla Cardoso’s first career 3-pointer at the buzzer to get past Tennessee in the semifinals? Or when USC gutted out a seven-point win over LSU in the championship game?
That was just under three weeks ago but feels like longer, given how the Gamecocks have been playing in the NCAA Tournament. Staley put it best last week: Now that it’s facing true elimination every game, South Carolina “has a job to do.” So far, they’re doing that job well.
The Gamecocks beat No. 16 Presbyterian by 52 points in the first round and nearly matched that margin with a 47-point win against No. 8 UNC in the second round at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. And that Tar Heels team only lost to South Carolina by seven points in November.
Here’s another stat to demonstrate just how on top of things South Carolina has been since the calendar turned to March Madness: In their last four pre-NCAA games, the Gamecocks beat Tennessee (+8), Texas A&M (+11), Tennessee (+1) and LSU (+7) by a combined 27 points.
The scoring margin in their two NCAA games? Plus 99, nearly four times that number.
“I just think we’re playing our best basketball,” Staley said Thursday. “I questioned it going into the SEC tournament and then during the SEC tournament. We weren’t just clicking on both sides of the basketball.”
“There were spurts of it, but when we had a little bit of time to practice between the SEC tournament championship and then our first round ... we did a lot of rest, but then when we got back from our break, we just really honed in.”
Scouting the Hoosiers
Indiana only qualified for two NCAA Tournaments from 2003 to 2019 but has recently taken a big step forward under coach Teri Moren. The Hoosiers are in their third Sweet 16 in the past four seasons, and they made the Elite Eight in 2021.
IU has an All-American at forward in Mackenzie Holmes, who averages 20 points per game and is No. 4 nationally in field goal percentage, and entered the tournament with the country’s best team field goal percentage (51%) and 3-point percentage (40.2%).
The Hoosiers had a slow start against No. 13 Fairfield in the first round before ultimately winning by 33 points, and they advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 76-68 win over No. 5 Oklahoma.
“We feel like we’ve been tested throughout the season, and our charge is just to come in here and put our best foot forward and play as well as we can,” Moren said Thursday.
At its best, Indiana is an offensively inclined team that can light it up from deep and get on an extended roll. The Hoosiers went 15-3 in a loaded Big Ten and were a perfect 17-0 at home.
But IU hasn’t been as elite against top competition this year, especially in road and/or neutral sites. Indiana has beaten Tennessee 71-57 on a neutral court early in the season but also lost to Stanford by 32 points, Iowa by 27 points and Ohio State by five points on the road.
“We really don’t feel any pressure at all,” Indiana guard Chloe Moore-McNeil said. “We know everybody expects South Carolina to win. They’re a great team, and obviously they’re undefeated. But it’s March Madness, so you kind of have to throw all those things out of the window and just focus on yourself and winning.”
South Carolina vs. Indiana game notes
USC is playing in a 10th straight Sweet 16 and is 6-4 all time on those regional semifinal games, including a perfect 3-0 in Sweet 16 games the past three seasons
The Gamecocks’ top two NCAA Tournament scorers thus far are bench players: freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley (18.5 ppg) and sophomore forward Chloe Kitts (16.5 ppg)
South Carolina is 3-2 all time against Indiana, but the Hoosiers have won the last two meetings and the only meeting during Staley’s tenure (a 2019 game during the Paradise Jam event in the US Virgin Islands)
After missing seven games with a foot injury, Indiana guard Sydney Parrish had scored 10-plus points four times in her last five games and had 17 points (12 in the second half) against Oklahoma in the round of 32
- IU has hit 10 or more 3-pointers in 12 games this season and shoots 39.6% as a team; in comparison, South Carolina has the country’s No. 8 3-point field goal percentage defense (26.1%)
This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 3:52 PM.
