PORTLAND, Ore. — Playing on a basketball court with mismatched 3-point lines, Aziaha James was on target from everywhere.
The N.C. State junior made a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points, helping the third-seeded Wolfpack beat top-seeded Texas 76-66 in the NCAA tournament's Portland 4 Region final Sunday and earn the program's first trip to the Final Four since 1998.
River Baldwin added 16 points for N.C. State (31-6), which will face undefeated South Carolina in Friday's national semifinals in Cleveland. The Gamecocks, the tourney's overall No. 1 seed, advanced by beating Oregon State to win the Albany 1 Region earlier in the day.
Back in Portland, the Longhorns and the Wolfpack faced off with 3-point lines at different distances on opposite ends of the court. James, who was named the region's most outstanding player, laughed afterward when asked if the different perimeter markings mattered to her.
"Not at all," she said. "Not at all."
Madison Booker, the Big 12 player of the year and one of the top freshmen in the country, finished with 17 points to lead the Longhorns (33-5), who were vying for their first Final Four trip since 2003. It was the program's final game representing the Big 12 before moving to the Southeastern Conference next season.
Beforehand, N.C. State coach Wes Moore and Texas counterpart Vic Schaefer conferred with officials about a visible difference between the 3-point lines. One appeared to be too close to the basket at the top of the key.
The NCAA issued a statement acknowledging a discrepancy but said both coaches agreed to play on. Four previous games on the court, all of them Sweet 16 matchups, were played over the previous two days during without anyone saying anything publicly about the error. The court will be corrected before Monday's Elite Eight game between the University of Connecticut and the University of South Carolina in the Portland 3 Region final, the NCAA said.
Lynn Holzman, the NCAA's vice president of women's basketball, said the NCAA will also investigate to determine how the mistake happened. She said the vendor who supplied the court apologized for the error.
Afterward, Schaefer said the difference was "about a foot."
"You want to know how if I think it had anything to do with the game? Probably not," he said.
James, who attempted nine 3-pointers, said the players were not told about the discrepancy before the game.
"I just allowed the game to come to me, and it went well for me," she said.
AP photo by Howard Lao / N.C. State's Aziaha James, left, and Texas guard Shaylee Gonzales, right, go for the ball during an NCAA tournament Elite Eight game Sunday in Portland, Ore.N.C. State led by 18 points in the first half, but Texas closed within 54-48 on DeYona Gaston's jumper late in the third quarter. James answered with a 3 to put the Wolfpack ahead by nine heading into the final period.
Booker's three-point play moved Texas within 63-55, and the Longhorns kept up their pressure with Taylor Jones' three-point play to narrow the gap to 65-58 with 4:41 to go. Another 3 by James kept Texas at bay.
Baldwin's jumper that made it 72-62 with 1:50 left all but sealed it for the Wolfpack. With 28 seconds left, James walked into a timeout huddle with her arms raised to elicit cheers from the fans behind the bench.
"Everybody doubted us," James said as her teammates celebrated. "We weren't even ranked before the season, and now we're going to the Final Four."
N.C. State finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings during the regular season and lost the league tournament's title game, but the Wolfpack's hopes for the program's first NCAA crown remain alive.
They have been to the Final Four just once before, losing to Louisiana Tech in the 1998 semifinals, and this was just their third Elite Eight appearance. The second, two years ago, resulted in a double-overtime loss to UConn.
That heartbreaker haunted Moore: "I didn't know if I'd ever get another chance."
Moore is in his 11th season with the program after 15 years leading the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
His starting lineup includes senior guard Madison Hayes, a Chattanooga native who was a prep star at East Hamilton. Hayes, known for her standout defense, had three assists, three rebounds, two points and a block in 31 minutes against Texas.
AP photo by Mary Altaffer / South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso smiles after cutting a piece of the net to celebrate the Gamecocks' win against Oregon State in an NCAA tournament Elite Eight game Sunday in Albany, N.Y.South Carolina 70, Oregon State 58
ALBANY, N.Y. — South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley has her program back in a familiar place — the Final Four — and she got there this time with an entirely new starting lineup.
Tessa Johnson scored 15 points and 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso added 12 to help the Gamecocks (36-0) beat third-seeded Oregon State (27-8). Cardoso, a former prep standout at Chattanooga's Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, also had nine rebounds and a pair of steals and was named the region's most outstanding player.
"Proud because we beat the odds," Staley said. "Odds said we shouldn't make it back to the Final Four. Proud of our team for them believing in themselves. We created a certain level of chemistry and culture and they stuck with it."
It's the second consecutive season the Gamecocks have made it to the Final Four undefeated. South Carolina hopes for a different conclusion this time after losing in last year's national semifinals to Big Ten member Iowa, which then lost to LSU — one of the Gamecocks' rivals in the SEC.
"We're different this year. I think we can do a lot of things. We can shoot from outside, drive," sophomore guard Raven Johnson said. "We can play from the inside out. This team is just a young, feisty, fierce team that's hungry. We've got a chip on our shoulder."
It's the fourth straight Final Four trip for the Gamecocks, who are chasing the program's third NCAA title after winning it all in 2017 and two years ago.
"Each time we get an opportunity to cut down nets is kind of special," said Staley, who's in her 16th season.
Two more wins would give the Gamecocks the 10th undefeated season in NCAA Division I women's basketball history.
Raegan Beers scored 16 points to lead the Beavers, who trailed by 14 points in the second half but got within 62-58 with 3:55 to play. They went cold from the field late, though, and South Carolina locked up the victory by hitting free throws.
South Carolina also held off Indiana in the Sweet 16 after losing a double-digit lead in the second half.
"Winning close games late in the tournament ... it shows how good we are, how hungry we are," Cardoso said. "We stay hungry because we don't want to lose. So we're just going to do whatever we need to do to win the games."