Sunday's women's NCAA Tournament takeaways: South Carolina remains perfect

The first two spots in the women's Final Four were set on Sunday. South Carolina is back for the fourth year in a row thanks to a 70-58 win over Oregon State, while North Carolina State clinched its first spot since 1998 with a 76-66 win over No. 1 seed Texas.

Here are some takeaways from Sunday's games.

South Carolina remains perfect 

Another year, another Final Four appearance for Dawn Staley's team. 

Thanks to their win over Oregon State on Sunday, the Gamecocks are in the Final Four for the fourth consecutive season and the sixth time during Staley's tenure. It is also the second year in a row they have reached the Final Four with a perfect record.

Their only loss over the past two seasons was last year's semifinal loss to Iowa. They could get still get an opportunity to avenge that loss depending on what happens with the Iowa-LSU Elite Eight game on Monday.

South Carolina still got another scare and has some things to clean up

Despite the overall record, the Gamecocks have still had some flaws creeping in over the past couple of games as the competition has gotten deeper in the tournament.

They struggled to close out their Sweet 16 game against Indiana and had to hold on late, while Sunday's Elite Eight game also got close in the fourth quarter before they pulled away. 

Sunday was also an especially poor shooting day for the Gamecocks from 3-point range, hitting just 4-of-20 shots from beyond the arc. They were one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country during the regular season, so the fact they were still able to win an Elite Eight game by double digits despite an off-day shooting is a testament to how good this year's team is. 

Staley has talked this tournament about how this is a very young team and can sometimes get itself into trouble by taking some bad shots with big leads, but the overall talent level is undeniable.

Oregon State is definitely on the rise

After missing the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two years and starting the season unranked, Oregon State battled through an extremely difficult Pac-12 conference, finished in third place during the regular season and even reached the top 10 in the national rankings at its high point. With several starters and key players likely to return next season the arrow is definitely pointing up. 

Three-point line mishap is an unacceptable mistake at this level

The big issue in the North Carolina State-Texas game was the incorrectly measured three-point line in Portland.

That is simply the kind of mistake that can not happen at this level of basketball and at this stage of the competition.

Even though the two teams on Sunday agreed to play through it, every other game played there this weekend did not have the luxury of deciding if that's what they wanted to do.

It's not just the fact it happened, but also the fact it happened for two rounds that nobody noticed or questioned. Once it was known it was a mistake that was hard to miss and easy to see. 

It is simply a bad look for the NCAA. 

The three-point game was a game-changer for both teams

Regardless of how the line was measured the three-point game was always going to be a huge X-factor in this matchup. And for Texas in any game.

Mainly because Texas almost never utilizes that aspect of the game. 

It's awfully difficult to win in basketball in 2024 without utilizing three-point shots and it was always going to be a big question for Texas. 

Well, on Sunday it was a big issue that Texas couldn't overcome.

The Longhorns were just 1-of-6 from three-point range, compared to a 9-for-18 day by the WolfPack. Aziaha James alone went 7-for-9 on her way to a 27-point effort. 

In a game decided by 10 points, that difference in approach is one of the biggest deciding factors.