Big Third Quarter For South Carolina Dooms Indiana in 64-53 NCAA Tournament Defeat

(updated Sunday, March 23 at 8:33 p.m. ET)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Indiana’s women’s basketball has played with honor in defeat in its three previous games against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 5 this season

Close losses against UCLA and twice against USC were frustrating, but they showed the Hoosiers could compete with anyone.

Indiana was hoping to knock down the door as it took on another top five team on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament – second-ranked South Carolina.

It would be a tougher task as the Hoosiers met the Gamecocks on their home floor at Colonial Life Arena. For much of the game, Indiana seemed capable of accomplishing that mission.

Ninth-seeded in the Birmingham 2 Region, Indiana was competitive for three quarters of the game, out-scoring the top-seeded Gamecocks 39-38 in those three periods.

But the close-but-no-cigar vibe of the season could not be shaken. South Carolina’s one dominant quarter was the third period. The Gamecocks outscored the Hoosiers by 12, and it provided the cushion South Carolina needed to earn a 64-53 victory as Indiana’s season came to an end.

"The first, second, fourth quarter, we were right there. So if we could have any do-overs, it would have been that third quarter. Maybe we would have got the outcome we wanted," Indiana coach Teri Moren said.

Trailing by a point at halftime, South Carolina out-scored Indiana 26-14 in the third quarter – it proved to be the decisive stretch for the defending national champion Gamecocks.

Indiana’s Shay Ciezki led all scorers with 12 points. Karoline Striplin (11), Yarden Garzon (10) and Chloe Moore-McNeil (10) also reached double figures. Bree Hall led South Carolina with 11 points, but it was Chloe Kitts’ 10 points that were most damaging. She scored seven of those points in the decisive third quarter.

The first half was dictated by Indiana’s defense and Moore-McNeil.

Both teams struggled mightily to get their shooting on track. The Hoosiers and Gamecocks missed their first seven shots of the game.

South Carolina kept on missing. The Gamecocks missed 17 of their first 21 shots, a cold streak that lasted well into the second quarter.

Indiana didn’t light it up either, but Moore-McNeil was the one player who was able to generate offense. The fifth-year senior was 4 of 6 from the field in the first half, including eight points in the first quarter to help Indiana lead 12-9 by the end of the quarter. The nine points the Gamecocks scored tied their season low for a quarter.

Shay Ciezki got involved in the scoring in the second quarter – she scored seven in the second period – as Indiana surged to a 19-11 lead in front of a shocked partisan South Carolina crowd.

The Gamecocks revived themselves in the middle of the second quarter. A 12-2 run briefly put the Gamecocks in front, but Indiana scored five straight to help the Hoosiers take a 26-25 halftime lead.

"They are a fine oiled machine. They run their stuff. They execute it. They've got you working on both sides of the court when we're on defense," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. "Just well-rounded and calculated and deliberate in what they want to do, so they're exhausting. I know our players are exhausted. But it takes that to beat a team like Indiana.

South Carolina made just 34.5% of its first half shots. South Carolina’s leading scorers – Joyce Edwards and MyLasia Fulwiley – were held to three points (all from Edwards) as they combined to make just 1 of 7 from the field in the first half. Kitts, the third-leading scorer, was held scoreless as she sat with foul trouble.

Indiana’s leading scorer – Garzon – was also held in check, making just 1 of 5 shots.

The team that got one of its best scorers going in the second half was likely going to prevail.

Unfortunately for Indiana, that player was Kitts.

When Kitts converted a jumper with 9:32 left in the third quarter, it was the beginning of the end for the Hoosiers. That shot ignited a stretch in which South Carolina made nine of 10 from the field.

Kitts was in the middle of it all. She was 3 of 4 in the third quarter and also had three rebounds. The Gamecocks fed off her effort and a rejuvenated crowd. A 20-7 run to start the second half reversed the game in South Carolina’s favor as it led 45-33.

"We were all just missing our easy lay-ups, and there wasn't really flow in the game, and then second half we turned it around," Kitts said.

Indiana didn’t help its cause with key turnovers. South Carolina scored six points off five Indiana turnovers as the Hoosiers struggled to keep up. By the end of the third quarter, the Gamecocks led 51-40. South Carolina’s 26 points in the third quarter were more than it scored in the first half.

"She probably got after them a little bit that they needed to pick it up because, I think Chloe alluded to it, that's kind of how it felt, that their intensity did pick up," Moren said. "So some of it was them, some of it was careless mistakes, just not taking care of the ball the way we needed to."

Indiana gave itself a chance in the fourth quarter. South Carolina was held without a field goal for the first 3:16 of the fourth quarter. However, Indiana was also cold. After Striplin made Indiana’s first shot of the fourth quarter, the Hoosiers did not make another bucket for 6:37. Without the scoring to go with the stops, the closest Indiana got in the fourth quarter was seven points.

Indiana concluded its season with a 20-13 record. It was the second time in three seasons that Indiana’s season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. South Carolina (36-3) advanced to the Birmingham 2 Regional where it will play Maryland or Alabama.

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