#1 South Carolina Women beat #2 Stanford in OT; The Gonzaga women lose

STANFORD, Calif. – Dawn Staley gathered her South Carolina women in a huddle and asked them to fight.

Aaliyah Boston heard that plea in one word and took charge when it mattered most, delivering as she has done day in and day out throughout her decorated career.

Boston overcame early foul trouble to score 14 points, including a game-tying jumper with two seconds left in regulation, Bree Hall’s 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in overtime, and No. 1 and defending NCAA champion South Carolina beat second-ranked Stanford 76- 71 on Sunday in a dramatic early-season showdown.

“At scrimmage, coach was saying, ‘You’ve got to fight, you’ve got to fight,'” Boston said, “and that was our mentality.”

South Carolina (4-0) led 73-71 when Stanford’s (5-1) Kiki Iriafen hit a missed free throw. But Iriafen called a timeout, which Stanford didn’t have, and was therefore given a technical foul. The Gamecocks’ Zia Cook made three free throws in the final three seconds to close out the scoring.

Staley and Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer wore long-sleeve white T-shirts emblazoned with Brittney Griner’s name in support of the WNBA great who is imprisoned in Russia.

Stanford snapped its 17-game home winning streak at Maples Pavilion, where the nationally televised matinee was a sellout crowd of just 7,233.

Gonzaga loses to Marquette

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Brynn Maxwell and Kailyn Truong each scored 18 points, but Gonzaga fell 70-66 to Marquette in Game 2 of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.

The Zags (4-1), who beat No. 6 Louisville on Saturday, will face No. 11 Tennessee in the third-place game at 11:30 a.m. PST Monday.

Maxwell, a Gig Harbor native, made two free throws to cut Marquette’s lead to 67-66 with 25 seconds left. Three free throws by “Berkut” accounted for the rest of the points.

Notes

• Louisville bounced back from a loss to Gonzaga with a 71-63 win at No. 3 Texas.

• Azzi Fad scored 32 points to lead No. 5 Connecticut past No. 10 North Carolina State 91-69.

UConn Associate Head Coach Chris Daly passed out after the national anthem in Hartford, Conn., and waved and smiled as he was carried off on a stretcher. Daley texted the players shortly after to say she was “fine”.