South Carolina leads Texas at halftime

South Carolina has a three-point lead after two quarters.

The biggest story of this game is Madison Booker’s foul trouble. Texas is a minus-11 with Booker on the bench, where she’s been planted for much of the first half. Booker picked up two fouls seven minutes into the game, and then her third late in the second.

Joyce Edwards has been great for the Gamecocks, with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists off the bench.

Both teams are shooting over 50% from the field, and each has 10 turnovers.

For the first time in her career, Madison Booker picked up three fouls in the first half. Her third came with 2:29 left in the second quarter.

The Gamecocks have rebounded from a poor start and we have a neck-and-neck game in the second quarter.

With Madison Booker on the bench with foul trouble, South Carolina pulled ahead 27-26 with 5:01 left in the second quarter. Booker finally checked back in at that time, however, and the Longhorns went back up on their next possession.

Texas leads 28-27 with 4:33 left in the second.

This is the third time Longhorns coach Vic Shaefer is coaching in a national semifinal, after leading Mississippi State to consecutive NCAA title games in 2017 and 2018. It’s not all that unexpected that he would have his team prepared for a stage that Texas players have never been on. Familiarity also plays a role; this is the fourth meeting between these teams, with South Carolia holding a 2-1 edge.

An entertaining, fast-paced first quarter to tip off the women’s Final Four.

The Longhorns raced out to a 10-2 start, but the Gamecocks closed the quarter strong, and Texas’s lead is a now a slim 19-18 headed into the second.

Longhorns star Madison Booker had six points in the first, but also picked up two fouls.

South Carolina was led in scoring by Joyce Edwards, who came off the bench with six points on her own.

Both teams were a little sloppy with the ball to start the game, combining for 11 turnovers in the opening quarter.

Since its starters opened the game struggling to hold onto the ball, South Carolina’s reserves have come in and already scored 12 of its 18 points. This is a bounce-back performance after its nation-leading bench mustered only nine points in the Elite Eight win against Duke.

Longhorns star and SEC Player of the Year Madison Booker just picked up her second foul with a little over three minutes to go in the first.

Booker checked out with six early points. Both fouls were avoidable — Booker can’t keep picking up cheap ones as this game goes on.

Texas has already forced four turnovers from South Carolina, disrupting both in the halfcourt and in transition. Turnovers are one of the Gamecocks’ few below-par areas this season. They average about 15 per game, which ranks 40th in the country.

The Longhorns have looked sharp so far, taking a 12-4 lead with 4:52 to go in the first quarter.

Texas started the game on a 10-2 run before the teams traded a couple buckets.

Longhorns guard Madison Booker, who has had some struggles against the Gamecocks this season, has six points in the first five minutes and change.

South Carolina has already turned the ball over four times.

Texas won the opening tip and the women’s Final Four is underway! Taylor Jones was fouled on an offensive rebound on the opening possession and hit two free throws to give the Longhorns a very early lead.

South Carolina leads all of Division I this season by scoring 40 points per game off the bench. That’s an incredible 9 points per game more than the second-ranked team. When Gamecocks reserves scored 66 points combined in their tournament-opening win over 16th-seeded Tennessee Tech last month, it was the most scored by a bench since 2000. In fact, the team’s two leading scorers, Joyce Edwards (12.7 points per game) and MiLaysia Fulwiley (11.9 points), don’t start.

The Longhorns take 10 3-pointers per game, and only two teams attempted fewer this season in the entire country. That formula has worked just fine to this point. But against a superior team like South Carolina, it could be asking a lot to score against the Gamecocks’ defense.

Much of that responsibility will fall to SEC player of the year and Texas wing Madison Booker. South Carolina is 2-1 against Texas this season, with its wins coming by an average of 18 points.

The 6-foot-7 center is the national defensive player of the year because she can not only guard post players, but also stifle wings, averaging 3.5 blocks during the NCAA tournament. Oh, and she’s putting up 23 points and nearly 10 rebounds per night in the tournament, as well. How UCLA strategizes to maximize Betts, and Connecticut its own Paige Bueckers, will be must-watch TV.

This is a question that has been asked of the women’s game more than the men’s because of the concentrated dominance of a small handful of programs since the 1980s. To me, the long-standing, even predictable, success of programs including Tennessee, Connecticut and South Carolina makes a breakthrough tournament run from an outsider program such as a Notre Dame, Mississippi State, Arizona or Iowa even more memorable.

Dynasties aren’t a bad thing; they create strong storylines, especially when they are toppled. This year, that fresh contender is UCLA, which despite being a No. 1 seed isn’t a traditional blue blood, making its first Final Four.

Bueckers has had a roller-coaster collegiate career, essentially having two seasons (one partially, one entirely) ruined by injury. In her senior go-around with the Huskies, she’s remained a talented and efficient scorer while also being the playmaker her team desperately needs.

Bueckers and UConn have been in the Final Four each of the last two years (and four out of the last five seasons) but the program hasn’t won a championship since 2016. Bueckers returning the Huskies to glory would be an incredibly satisfying story.

Entering this Final Four, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma has won 11 national championships, a record for NCAA women’s basketball, and three more than second-place Pat Summitt’s eight with Tennessee.

But ever since the Huskies’ last title in 2016, South Carolina has taken over as one of the premier programs in the country, winning three national championships for coach Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks are back in the Final Four again this year, and should Staley win again, she will join former Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer and Kim Mulkey, who has won titles at Baylor and LSU, in the four-title club.