BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The second half of Friday’s Birmingham 2 Regional doubleheader featured coaching royalty — South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and Maryland’s Brenda Frese. Each is a national championship-winning coach, and they were facing off for an Elite Eight berth. The game itself lived up to the hype, with multiple lead changes in a closely fought game.

Maryland led by one point with 3:25 remaining, hoping to pull off the giant upset. But the No. 1 seed Gamecocks took control, holding the Terrapins scoreless for three straight minutes; that defensive effort was the catalyst in a close 71-67 win. South Carolina will play in the Elite Eight for a fifth straight season and try to advance to a fifth straight Final Four.

“That’s our normal defense,” Staley said. “If we would have connected those possessions early in the basketball game, we might have found ourselves with a little bit of a bigger lead, but we were down at that point and we had to lock in.”

Gamecocks sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley led all scorers with 23 points, including 16 in the second half, and added five rebounds and three assists. Junior Chloe Kitts chipped in 15 points and 11 rebounds to help pace the team. On the other end, Maryland’s Kaylene Smikle had 17 points, tops among the four Terrapins who scored in double figures.

South Carolina (33-3) extended its winning streak to eight games and will play No. 2 seed Duke, on a nine-game streak, at 2 p.m. ET Sunday.

Maryland’s chaotic week ends in narrow loss

Few teams have had a week as taxing as Maryland’s. The Terrapins played a classic round-of-32 game against Alabama — a 111-108 overtime thriller — then quickly turned around and traveled to Birmingham to face the nation’s most dominant program.

“You look at a game where we had multiple players play close to the entire 50 minutes,” Frese said Thursday. “For our staff, around the clock with the scouting that has to take place and the transfer portal that, fortunately for us, opened on Tuesday as well. Little to no rest, but a lot of reset for the kids. Then getting back to actual practice (on Thursday). A lot has been going on.”

Despite the circumstances, Maryland put forth an inspired effort, matching South Carolina at every turn and with a confidence that grew throughout the game. Toughness is a staple under Frese, and it was on display Friday, though the effort fell short, particularly in the final minutes when South Carolina found enough of a scoring rhythm while Maryland went cold.

The Terrapins shot only 72.2 percent from the free throw line (13-of-18), moderately lower than their 78 percent season average. It made a difference in a tightly contested game.

“I think we executed the game plan to a tee,” Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers said. “It came down to we missed more free throws than we usually do and then a couple of (defensive stops Maryland didn’t get) at the end.”

Frese, Maryland’s coach for 23 seasons, looked back on this season with pride. It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the 2024-25 Terrapins — starting the season 14-0, stumbling to 19-6, then winning six of seven games before their season ended Friday. In a world where Frese is uncertain what next year’s team will look like due to roster turnover, the hope is that this experience can push the program forward as it seeks another Final Four, which it hasn’t reached since 2015.

“When you look at the pressure they were under (this season) and even in the Sweet 16 game,” Frese said, “they didn’t flinch. We believed we could win this game. We showed that we could win this game, and I think we gave a pretty good blueprint on how to beat South Carolina, to be quite honest, for the teams moving forward.”

Is there cause for concern for South Carolina?

Is Frese correct? Possibly. For the second consecutive game, South Carolina trailed at halftime. That’s not common for a program as dominant as the Gamecocks. The second quarter was particularly troubling, when South Carolina failed to score a basket for nearly six minutes. In that time, Maryland turned a 19-16 deficit into a 25-22 lead and held control for the remainder of the quarter.

Kitts and Fulwiley combined for all 17 points in the first quarter, then went scoreless in the second. The other four starters outside of Kitts combined to shoot just 1-for-13 from the field. As a team, South Carolina shot 32 percent from the field and 25 percent from the 3-point line in the first half.

Outside of the shooting woes, South Carolina committed 18 turnovers that led to 18 Maryland points. That will be another area of emphasis before Sunday’s game against Duke.

But the Gamecocks won, and the second half saw a much better shooting split, particularly from the field at 48 percent. But the question looms: Would a similar scoring drought moving forward result in a different outcome?

“Was it ugly? Yes,” Staley said. “Are people going to say this doesn’t look like a national championship team? Well, we didn’t look like one last year to most in the beginning of the season. We looked like one in 2022; 2017, we didn’t look like one. I think we’re back to where we don’t look like one and hopefully we can win it and even it out.”

Though the offense evaded South Carolina in stretches, the defense made up for it, holding Maryland to 38 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from the 3-point line in the second half. Those misses allowed the Gamecocks to play in transition and create offense, but Staley will be looking for ways to activate her team in the half court.

“We’re a resilient group,” Staley said. “People thought we had the easiest region. I don’t think so. It’s not easy at all, it gets harder because we’ve got to play Duke.”

Fulwiley was needed spark for Gamecocks

There was perhaps no louder moment inside Legacy Arena than the 24-second mark in the third quarter, courtesy of Fulwiley. She grabbed a rebound and raced up the court. A behind-the-back move and fadeaway jumper later, South Carolina broke a 50-50 tie and carried that momentum to a close win.

“Just score, get the ball in the hoop,” Fulwiley said. “I kinda saw a double-team a little bit once I crossed the half-court line on my transition moves. They were like, ‘Come on, come on, she’s not going to score this,’ and I just let my confidence finish the rest and it went in. So I was excited to prove my haters wrong.”

Those plays set Fulwiley apart, and it’s what Staley wants to see her make consistently. Fulwiley led all players with 16 second-half points. She’s South Carolina’s leader off the bench, and her development is a leading storyline. And taking Staley’s coaching in stride has led to performances like Friday’s game.

“(MiLaysia) just wants to win,” Staley said. “This is probably the time that she locks in a little bit more than others because it’s win or go home. … Lay is the perfect guard that you can call on to manufacture points, and she did that. And I thought she did a really good job on the other end of the floor.”

Fulwiley’s continued growth will help define South Carolina, now and into the future, with senior guards graduating after this season. Friday’s game was another example of her sky-high potential and what she’s capable of doing when playing to that potential.

“I think I kind of just took what (the coaches) were saying,” Fuwiley said Thursday. “I had to understand that it’s either I do it or I don’t. I felt like I wanted to do it. It’s been working for me lately. The standard that Dawn has got here is great, and I think every player should want to play under this standard.”