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Women's NCAA Tournament Elite Eight winners, losers
UCLA Bruins head coach Cori Close celebrates after an Elite 8 NCAA Tournament basketball game against the LSU Lady Tigers at Spokane Arena. James Snook-Imagn Images

Women's NCAA Tournament Elite Eight winners, losers: UCLA, South Carolina advance

Half of the field for the women's Final Four is set after the completion of two games on Sunday. 

One of the two is extremely familiar, and the other is in unfamiliar territory. Here are three winners and losers from Sunday's games.

Winners

UCLA's three-point shooting

Three-point shooting may have very well been the key to success in UCLA's 72-65 win against LSU.

The Bruins went 10-of-24 (41.7%) in the win, including a 5-of-8 performance from Timea Gardiner off the bench. The five threes for Gardiner were her most in a game since Nov. 17, when she knocked down seven.

Potential Final Four matchups

It is very common to hear the phrase "It's hard to beat a team three times in one season."

There is potential for Final Four matchups of UCLA-USC and Texas-South Carolina. If so, it would be the fourth matchup of the season between the teams. If it is indeed hard to beat a team three times in one season, there could be a UCLA-Texas matchup in the national championship.

Chloe Kitts

Kitts has been a star all season long for South Carolina, and she stepped up in the biggest moments of the 54-50 win on Sunday.

With the Gamecocks trailing by four at the end of the third quarter, Kitts scored eight of her 14 points in the fourth quarter and helped South Carolina reach its fifth consecutive Final Four.

Losers

Free-throw shooting

If you were looking for good free-throw shooting on Sunday, the women's games weren't the place to be.

Of the four teams in action, LSU was the best at 83.3% from the line. South Carolina, Duke and UCLA shot 65%, 53.8% and 71.4% respectively.

Duke's fourth quarter

Speaking of the Blue Devils, they held a four-point fourth-quarter lead over the Gamecocks before falling apart in the fourth quarter.

Duke scored just eight points and eventually lost to South Carolina by four points. Had the Blue Devils won, it would've been their first appearance in the Final Four since 2006.

ACC

Duke was the only remaining team from the ACC and with its loss to South Carolina, there will be no ACC representation in the Final Four or the national championship.

Andrew Wright

Andrew "Dew" Wright graduated from Charleston Southern University with a degree in Communication Studies. He is a lifelong Chicago Cubs and Washington Commanders fan. 

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