South Carolina heads to 2nd straight NCAA title game after beating Texas - ESPN

TAMPA, Fla. — South Carolina has finally reached the moment it played for all season long: The Gamecocks are in the national championship game, with a chance to make history.

After overcoming another slow start, South Carolina blitzed Texas with a decisively dominant third quarter to put the game out of reach, winning 74-57 on Friday to clinch its spot in the title game Sunday.

South Carolina will now attempt to repeat as national champions for the first time in school history. The last team to win back-to-back titles was UConn, which won four straight from 2013-16.

South Carolina continued its dominance over Texas, winning the season series 3-1. The last two postseason games — the SEC tournament championship and the national semifinal — were not particularly close. Once again, South Carolina found ways to break down the vaunted Texas defense with its speed and athleticism, using transition buckets, points in the paint and timely 3-point shooting to win comfortably.

Dawn Staley is now 8-0 all-time against Texas coach Vic Schaefer in postseason games. After struggling in the last three rounds of the NCAA tournament, freshman Joyce Edwards showed off what made her such a dynamic player this season, making huge plays once again on the offensive and defensive ends.

Last week in Birmingham, Staley said they would need more production from Edwards if they wanted to win a national championship and would go to practice and simplify a few things for her to get going.

Whatever the coaches told her worked, as Edwards had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. But it may have been senior Te-Hina Paopao who played her best game. Paopao scored 14 points and was 3-of-4 from 3 as Texas struggled to guard her.

The game turned in