TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Lacking a true superstar like coach Dawn Staley’s previous title-winning teams, South Carolina used its depth, led by freshman Joyce Edwards, to wear down Texas and advance to the championship game of the women’s NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
The Gamecocks’ reserves scored 35 points in their 74-57 win over the Longhorns on Friday night.
Staley was constantly shuttling fresh players in against Texas, saying at one point that the Longhorns had “weary legs.”
Edwards, Staley’s sensational freshman, led the way off the bench. She put together her best game of the NCAA Tournament since the opener, with 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. The 6-foot-3 forward blew by any Texas defender who tried to guard her for easy layups. That helped the Gamecocks to a 40-22 advantage in paint points.
“We don’t depend on one person to win the game,” Edwards said, adding that the key to her breakout performance was believing in herself and trusting and feeding off the confidence Staley and teammates have in her.
“I trusted myself to do what I had to do,” she said.
Edwards hadn’t scored in double figures in the tournament since having 22 in a win over Texas Tech in the first round.
Staley has won three national titles, the first with star A’ja Wilson and the second with Aliyah Boston, both of whom were in attendance Friday night. South Carolina won it all last season with a dominant center in Kamilla Cardoso. This version of the Gamecocks has relied upon a deep rotation with nine players getting solid minutes.
Edwards and the viral sensation MiLaysia Fulwiley have been the top two scorers all season. Fulwiley added seven points on Friday.
“I try not to get too low in the lows and too highs in the highs. I’m just going out there and playing,” Edwards said. “I mean, you’re gonna have slumps. It’s part of the growth. It’s part of the process. My coaches comfort me, my teammates comfort me, my family comforts me.”
Senior guard Te-Hina Paopao led the Gamecocks with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 3 of 4 on 3-pointers. She was proud of Edwards’ breakout performance.
“I mean, she’s a great player. Her ceiling is very high,” Paopao said.
“She came through for us today. You know, you got to go through that process to really want to play this game of basketball,” Paopao continued. “And she’s done a great job getting through that. We’ve helped her, instilling confidence in her and knowing that we need her and we trust her.”
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South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards (8) puts up a shot as she is fouled by Texas forward Madison Booker (35) during the first half of a national semifinal Final Four game during the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Texas guard Bryanna Preston (1) puts up a shot against South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards (8) during the first half of a national semifinal Final Four game during the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards (8) puts up shot against Texas forward Kyla Oldacre (00) during the second half of a national semifinal Final Four game during the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
South Carolina forward Joyce Edwards (8) drives to the basket against Texas forward Madison Booker (35) and forward Taylor Jones (44) during the first half of a national semifinal Final Four game during the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms filled up rivers to near record levels across Kentucky on Monday, submerging neighborhoods and threatening a famed bourbon distillery in the state capital of Frankfort.
Swollen rivers posed the latest threat from a series of persistent storms that have killed at least 20 people since last week — 10 of them in Tennessee — as they doused the region with heavy rains and spawned destructive tornadoes. Teeming waterways kept the flood threat high in other states, as well, including in Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana.
Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio. Floodwaters forced the closure of the historic Buffalo Trace Distillery, close to the banks of the swollen Kentucky River near downtown Frankfort.
“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort.
She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.
“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.
Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.
Ashley Welsh, her husband and four children — along with their pets — had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.
When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.
“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.
The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house's cameras.
“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.
The 20 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.
Two men sitting in a golf cart were killed when a tree fell on them at a golf course in Columbus, Georgia, according to Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.
The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.
The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office.
Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.
Across Kentucky, more than 500 state roads were still closed Monday morning, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Beshear said more than 1,000 people had no access to water and nearly 3,000 were under boil water advisories. He said at least 20 water systems were affected.
The City of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, said on social media that its water system had to discontinue pumping around midnight due to flood levels on the Kentucky River. Bottled water was being handed out Monday. The post said officials from Harrodsburg and Mercer County and leaders from factories, hospitals and schools had been discussing how to minimize water use in the community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Frankfort.
More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.
The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.
Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.
The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; and Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee.
The rising Ohio River partially submerges the bronze statue of James Bradley along Riverside Drive, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky. Cincinnati and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge are seen across the Ohio River. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A Canadian goose swims in the rising Ohio River at the intersection of River Riverside Place and Ben Bernstein Place, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky., across the river from Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Carole Smith walks through her flooded home on Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters carry a boat to a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A flooded neighborhood is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Road crews work to clear Lee County Rd. 681 in Saltillo, Miss, Sunday, April 6, 2025, of downed trees that blocked the road following the severe weather that passed through the area Saturday night. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)
CORRECTS TO MICHAEL NOT MICHALE Michael Scott Memering looks out of his trailer after evacuating the Licking River RV Campground that was flooded by the rising waters of the Licking River, seen behind, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Falmouth, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Bill Jones pulls his boat ashore, filled with bottles of bourbon, from a flooded home near the banks of the Kentucky River on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers stands near flooded homes in the rising waters of the Kentucky River in Monterey, Ky,. Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The flooded downtown area is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters speak to a resident in a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A group of people survey damage at Pounders Mobile Home Park following a strong line of storms in the area in Muscle Shoals, Ala, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers walks in the rising waters of the Kentucky River on a flooded Monterey Pike in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Abner Wagers, right, and Brayden Baker, both with the Monterey Volunteer Fire Department, walk in the rising waters of the Kentucky River near a flooded home in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
the rising waters of Cedar Creek and the Kentucky River overflow their banks, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Monterey, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
