South Carolina women's basketball wins SEC Tournament over LSU after shoving match, ejections

GREENVILLE − With just six players left after a series of ejections, South Carolina women's basketball held off LSU to win the SEC Tournament championship game, 79-72, Sunday in Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

What had been a tightly contested basketball game throughout, boiled over in the last two minutes. After a foul on freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, senior center Kamilla Cardoso and LSU sophomore Flau'jae Johnson got into an altercation that ended with Cardoso and both benches getting, except one player, ejected for leaving. Cardoso will be forced to miss South Carolina's first NCAA Tournament game due to the ejection.

Senior guard Te-Hina Paopao was the lone player on the bench after the dust cleared. The game finished with Fulwiley, Bree Hall, Raven Johnson, Ashlyn Watkins, and Sania Feagin, who replaced Cardoso, for the No. 1 Gamecocks (32-0) against Johnson, Hailey Van Lith, Mikaylah Williams, Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow for the second-seeded Tigers (28-5).

Fulwiley finished with a career-high 24 points, setting a career high. Morrow scored 19 for LSU.

Any time South Carolina started to pull away, LSU fought back, including a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter that cut the lead to one point.

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Fulwiley gave South Carolina added spark in the first half off the bench, entering the break as the team's leading scorer with 10 points. Fulwiley hit a 3-pointer to spur an 11-2 run to close the first quarter, including another layup that set the Gamecocks up to grab the lead one possession later.

MiLaysia Fulwiley has biggest game of her career

After hitting the second of back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter, Fulwiley turned to look at her bench and shook her head, as if she didn't believe it herself.

Fulwiley had the biggest game of her short career against LSU, shooting 8-for-12 from the field.

Fulwiley is as confident as freshmen come, saying after Saturday's game she believed she would have made a halfcourt shot at the buzzer if she wasn't fouled. That came one day after she struggled against Texas A&M in her first career postseason game. She scored six points in 16 minutes against the Aggies, four of which came at the free throw line.

She looked like a different player in her third career postseason game, unafraid to pull up for a 3-pointer or go for the big play.

SEC Tournament final marked with physicality

After nearly an entire game that was as physical as it was close, things finally boiled over with two minutes remaining.

Fulwiley stole the ball and was fouled intentionally by Johnson when she had a chance for a fast break. The Gamecocks took exception to the action, then Johnson shoved Watkins before Cardoso came and laid Johnson out.

Reese let Cardoso know from the beginning how her game would go, bumping the Gamecocks' center and telling her it would be that way "All day." Cardoso smiled in response.

As the first half went on, the physicality didn't wear down South Carolina as much as it did LSU. Reese was called for an intentional foul for catching Cardoso with a high elbow, just a few possessions after sophomore forward Chloe Kitts picked up a similar offensive foul. Kitts' foul was not upgraded.