South Carolina reaches 2nd straight NCAA

Tools

Story Created: Mar 18, 2013 at 8:15 PM EDT

Story Updated: Mar 21, 2013 at 2:15 PM EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley are heading to consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time in a decade.

The fourth-seeded Gamecocks (23-7) will open against South Dakota State (25-7) in the Norfolk regional. South Carolina last played in back-to-back NCAAs in 2002 and 2003. They reached the round of 16 a season ago before losing to Stanford and Staley built on that run all offseason to make it back this winter.

South Carolina started 10-0 matching the best start in program history. It won a school record 11 games in the Southeastern Conference. And they did it with Staley's trademark, in-your-face defensive style. They've given up just 49.5 points a game, the country's fourth-best defense. Senior guard Ieasia Walker was voted the SEC's defensive player of the year.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

ABC Columbia and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Current Weather

Columbia
Current: 71°
Partly Cloudy
High: 72°
Low: 71°
Wind: 7 MPH
Pressure: 29.91
Humidity: 96 %

What's on WOLOTV Full Schedule