Duke Takes South Carolina Almost To The Buzzer In The 2025 Elite 8 Before Falling, 54-50

What a great season for Kara Lawson’s team

Duke gave #1 South Carolina all it wanted Saturday afternoon before the Gamecocks put the game way late, 54-50.

South Carolina ran out to a 10-2 lead and it looked like Dawn Staley’s team might be in blowout mode.

Didn’t happen.

Duke mounted a steady comeback, and at the half the score was 26-22.

In the third the Blue Devils went up 29-26 on a Reigan Richardson three and maintained the lead at 42-38 at the end of the quarter.

And in the fourth, Duke hung around, but South Carolina went back at 44-42.

Still, they could never fully escape. Toby Fournier hit a layup on a pass from Ashlon Jackson to cut the lead to 50-48. Chloe Kitts put SC back up by four 52-48.

Oluchi Okananwa cut it to 52-50 before Kitts hit her free throws with :05 left for the final margin.

So in the end, it was close but South Carolina prevailed. However, Duke showed again that it can play defense and put themselves in position to beat anyone. The Blue Devils took the #1 team to the buzzer, which is pretty impressive.

Fournier led the way with 18. Jackson had 13. South Carolina had something to do with this, but the Blue Devils hit just 29.4 on their threes and 31.7 overall. A few more shots, a few less turnovers (Duke had 19) and this would have been a great upset.