As time wound down in the third quarter of South Carolina’s Sweet 16 win over Maryland in the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament, the score was tied at 50-50 until MiLaysia Fulwiley decided to change that. She pushed the ball up the floor in transition, but didn’t have numbers and the shot clock was off. The smart play would have been to pull up and hold for the last shot. Instead, Fulwiley brought the ball around her back and put up an off-balance floater.
It caught nothing but net.
“I expect her to do the things that she was doing out there for us,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “I don’t know how it’s going to look because it looks a lot different than most. She’s got a lot of gall to try some of the stuff that she does, but it’s just part of who she is.”
Fulwiley’s daring drive to end the third was one of many key plays the sophomore made in the second half on Friday to help the Gamecocks escape with a 71-67 victory and keep their season alive. She also made the go-ahead basket late in the fourth and scored an NCAA Tournament career-high 23 points, while adding five rebounds and three assists
No. 1 seed South Carolina is hoping to become the first team to repeat as national champions since UConn won four titles in a row from 2013-16, and was a massive favorite coming in against a Maryland team that struggled in the first round against Norfolk State and needed late heroics to beat Alabama in double overtime.
Early on, though, it was clear this would not be an easy night for the Gamecocks. While the Terrapins were not known for their defense this season, they succeeded in mucking things up and making the Gamecocks uncomfortable. At halftime, the Gamecocks were trailing by two, shooting 31.6% from the field and barely had more field goals (12) than turnovers (eight).
All season long, the Gamecocks have taken a by-committee approach on the offensive end. Joyce Edwards is their leading scorer at just 13.2 points per game and they have six players averaging at least eight points (Fulwiley is second at 11.2 per game). You cannot argue with their success, but at times their lack of a go-to scorer has been problematic. Friday’s contest was the latest example.
When a game turns into a slog or the team has nothing going on the offensive end, you need someone who can just go get a bucket. Fulwiley has the talent to do just that, but she doesn’t always get the opportunity due to her shaky decision-making and struggle to handle Staley’s tough coaching. Even as a sophomore, she still comes off the bench and is eighth on the team in playing time (19 minutes per game).
“When I get on [MiLaysia] it’s more of — does she take bad shots, yes,” Staley said. “She makes a living off of making bad shots, which is good. Everybody’s not capable of doing that. You can take bad shots and you can never make the bad shots. She makes them. But when you take a bad shot or you miss a shot that you get back on defense and you execute like we need to execute.”
There were plenty of moments Friday where it looked like it would not be Fulwiley’s night. She went 3 of 9 in the first half and got yanked after missing a deep 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. On this occasion, though, she was able to respond to the adversity.
“There was an instance in this game where I got on her big time,” Staley said. “Two months ago she wouldn’t be able to recover from it. Two months ago she would have shut down and we probably would have lost the game because she was the only one who could really manufacture her own shot and make baskets.”
The Gamecocks were clinging to a one-point lead when Fulwiley took that misguided 3 with 6:36 to play. She came out at the next dead ball, and didn’t get back on the court until the 2:31 mark when the Gamecocks had fallen behind by one. Nine seconds later she made the go-ahead layup, then added another clutch bucket with just over a minute to play to push the lead to four, before adding two free throws to help ice the game.
“She just wants to win,” Staley said. “In those moments is when I feel like I can coach her the most, when she’ll listen the most… She’s grown to the fact that — it gets hot. Everything is not spoken in a soft tone. The kitchen gets hot when you’re trying to survive in the NCAA Tournament. She’s gotta handle it, because it’s not gonna be me. Her next coach in the WNBA is gonna scream too. It’s what we do. It’s our livelihood. I’m glad she responded.”
Fulwiley’s response sent South Carolina into the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive year. There, they’ll face No. 2 seed Duke on Sunday in Birmingham, Ala. with a trip to the Final Four on the line.