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South Carolina, Arizona St aren't same teams as before NCAAs
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Like all teams, South Carolina and Arizona State are watching a lot of film to get ready for their second round NCAA Tournament game Sunday.
But all that scouting might not help much. The top-seeded Gamecocks are getting smaller and more aggressive after losing all-Southeastern Conference second team center Alaina Coates to a foot injury this month, while the No. 8 seed Sun Devils finally have all their players healthy and are suddenly a threat from the outside.
Sunday's winner advances to the Sweet 16 in Stockton, California, a round South Carolina has made it to three years in a row but Arizona State has been to just once since 2009.
Both teams seemed to adjust well to their new circumstances. South Carolina beat UNC Asheville by 50 by mostly playing four guards. Allisha Gray provided the rebounding help - her 12 boards exceeded Coates' Southeastern Conference leading 10.7 rebounds a game - and Bianca Cuevas-Moore provided the pressure with four steals and 15 of her 18 points coming off fast break layups.
''You would think, `oh my gosh, Coates is out, woohoo' But they really don't appear to have missed a beat. They won the SEC championship game without her,'' Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
Arizona State beat Michigan State 73-61 in a game the Sun Devils led by 28 before easing off in the fourth quarter. The Sun Devils suddenly found a shooting stroke, making 44 percent of their 3-pointers after shooting just 31 percent from behind the arc for the year.
The Sun Devils also has freshmen Kiara Russell and Jamie Ruden and senior Kelsey Moos all back on the court. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley watched the Michigan State game from courtside and said it was the best game she has seen the Sun Devils play this season.
''They just seem like they are in a groove. They have some fluidity to their offense. We have to find some way to disrupt that and not give them as many practice shots - shots where nobody is around them and they seem to knock them down,'' Staley said.
The teams were in the same region last year with South Carolina as the top seed and Arizona State the second seed, but both were upset before they could meet. Thorne said she thinks they should be meeting later in the tournament this year too,
''This doesn't feel like a second round game, except we're on their home floor,'' Thorne said.
HAWAII MEMORIES
Arizona State and South Carolina aren't totally unknown to each other. The Gamecocks beat the Sun Devils 60-58 in overtime last season in a November 2015 game at a tournament in Hawaii.
Wilson and Cuevas-Moore each scored 18. Arizona State's two leading scores were seniors. The starting frontcourt went a combined 5-for-16 from the field. Quinn Dornstauder has to leave the game at in the first half to get 10 stiches after a Wilson elbow and Moos suffered a concussion.
''It was very, very physical. It was a very tough game to play,'' Wilson said. ''We were in a nice place though.''
Wilson won the game with two free throws with less than a second left.
''A touch foul to decide the game - our little 5-7 guard just standing there on Wilson. But that's basketball,'' Thorne said.
TORN BETWEEN TWO TEAMS
South Carolina fans who want to watch both their women and men play in the NCAA second rounds will have to make a choice Sunday.
The women tip off at 7 p.m. in Columbia, while the No. 7 seed men take on second-seeded Duke around 8:40 p.m. some 100 miles away in Greenville. Both teams have never made it this far in the tournament in the same season.
The conflict already appear to cost the women some fans. Attendance Friday was 8,215 - some 4,600 fans less than the women's team has averaged this year. The men tipped off about three hours later.
Staley said she thinks the NCAA ''would want to not split a fan base - because they like to talk about fan bases.''
