USC women’s basketball team repeats Greensboro magic
GREENSBORO, N.C.
SOUTH CAROLINA tapped into the magic of the Greensboro Coliseum one more time Friday night, nearly 44 years to the day after the one of the most enchanting moments in athletics department history.
Just as Tom Owens wrote himself into USC lore with a game-winning shot in the final seconds to defeat North Carolina for the ACC tournament championship in 1971, Tiffany Mitchell’s drive for the game-winning basket in the final seconds to defeat UNC Friday sealed her place in women’s basketball history.
The two epic baskets occurred in the same building, against the same baby blue-clad opponent, at the basket on the same end of the court. Owens’ shot came off a jump ball and was scored on the left side of the basket. Mitchell’s shot came off a designed play out of a timeout and was scored on the right side of the basket.
In both wins, USC managed to overcome what had become a vexing hurdle by defeating teams from UNC. The ’71 ACC champs had been banging their collective heads against the UNC wall for years before earning USC’s first berth in the NCAA tournament.
For the women’s team, UNC has developed into USC’s closest and most-disliked rival, fueled by year-in and year-out recruiting battles for the most talented players in both states. UNC has long tapped the state of South Carolina for players, mostly because of the ties to the state of Tar Heel coach Sylvia Hatchell. Only in recent seasons has Dawn Staley begun to shut down the South Carolina borders.
The rivalry was ratcheted up another level when the fourth-seeded Tar Heels ended the 2014 season of the top-seeded Gamecocks in the Sweet 16 round of the Stanford Regional. The loss was a bitter pill to swallow, and the aftertaste hung with USC’s returning players through the offseason and all through the current season.
This time, USC advanced to the Elite Eight with the 67-65 victory.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to get a win against them,” said a smiling Aleighsa Welch afterward. “We always seem to see them when it counts the most. It’s always that pivotal point in our season when we happen to see them. ... It’s a game we wanted, badly.”
The game’s outcome was on the line when USC called a timeout with 22.3 seconds remaining and the score knotted at 65.
During the timeout, Staley drew up the same play USC often has used at the end of tight games over the past couple of seasons. It called for Tina Roy to dribble the ball far from the basket until Mitchell could free herself around a screen on the wing.
But Roy could not get the ball inbounds when UNC denied Mitchell the ball. So USC used its final timeout to again talk about the final play.
This time, Roy inbounded the ball to Alaina Coates near midcourt. Coates handed the ball back to Roy, who dribbled about 12 seconds off the clock before passing to Mitchell on the right wing.
“We ran the play to have the ball in her hands,” Welch said of Mitchell. “We knew she would make a good decision with the ball. It was kind of just see how the defense played you.”
Mitchell quickly weighed her options and saw that the right side of the court was clear with the exception of the UNC defender in front of her.
“I just saw how the defense was playing and just drove it to the basket,” Mitchell said.
She easily got past the defender for a layup, banking the ball off the backboard and through the nets with 5 seconds remaining.
“Tiffany probably went a little bit sooner than we wanted her to,” Staley said, “but any time you get a basket, we’ll take the basket and rely on our defense.”
Most USC fans have long since forgotten that in 1971 UNC attempted and missed a desperation shot at the buzzer. So, too, did UNC on Friday.
Just as the Gamecocks swarmed Owens after his game-winner in a wild on-court celebration four decades ago, there were extra pats on the back and hugs for Mitchell as her teammates mobbed her near midcourt.
Magic, again.
This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 11:34 PM with the headline "USC women’s basketball team repeats Greensboro magic."