BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana women’s basketball team will have to knock of a juggernaut to reach the Elite Eight.

The No. 3 seeded Hoosiers (26-5) face the No. 1 overall seed South Carolina (34-0) in the Albany regional on Friday night. The Gamecocks are looking to win their third title in seven years.

Indiana pulled off an upset over South Carolina back in 2019 when Mackenzie Holmes was a freshman. Holmes is the only player who played in that game that remains on either roster. The All-American propelled the Hoosiers into the Sweet 16 with her late game heroics in a 75-68 win over Oklahoma.

Here’s what to know about Indiana women’s Sweet 16 opponent:

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Undefeated No. 1 seed South Carolina passes on rebuilding year

South Carolina lost five players to the WNBA draft last year including four-time All-American Aliyah Boston.

It would have been understandable if the Gamecocks took a step back after that, but they have been the No. 1 team in the country since the second week of the season and reached their 10th straight Sweet 16 with an average margin of victory of 30.9 points.

They have only played five single-digit games this season.

The scary part for the Hoosiers is that South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said the win over North Carolina was the best her team has played this season.

“We haven't played like that in a super long time. We actually were talking about that in the coaches' locker room, like, we haven't played well all together. Every single of our players made an impact coming into the game,” Staley said. “And we needed a performance like this. And hopefully this playing this good of basketball can be contagious throughout the rest of the way.”

South Carolina women have a scary good defense

North Carolina’s 41 points against South Carolina last week were the fewest the program scored in its 81-game NCAA tournament history. The Tar Heels scored less than 10 points in the first and fourth quarter.

That’s no aberration for the Gamecocks.

It was the fifth time this season they held a Power Five opponent to less than 50 points and they’ve held opponents to single-digit points in a quarter 33 times.

South Carolina is only allowing 55.4 points per game this season (11th in the NCAA) and have the best field goal percentage defense in the country (31.7%). Opposing teams are only shooting 26.1% from 3-point range against the Gamecocks and they haven’t allowed 10 or more made 3-points in a game since Jan. 11.

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South Carolina’s fab freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley taking over

South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley showed how far she’s come in her team’s 88-41 win over North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament last week.

It was just a few short months ago that Fulwiley played just three minutes when the Gamecocks visited Chapel Hill. That was a much closer game — South Carolina won 65-58 — but Fulwiley didn’t play in the final three quarters.

Fulwiley was the best player on the floor in the rematch between the teams. She scored a team-high 20 points (8 of 15) coming off the bench with nine rebounds, three steals and three blocks.

“I think she has something to prove to herself, and something to prove to the game,” Staley said, after the second round win. “I think she's wired that way.”

The 5-foot-10 freshman was the No. 13 ranked overall player in the 2023 class coming out of W.J. Keenan. She was a four-time South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association player of the year and graduated as her school’s all-time leading scorer.

She started playing on her varsity high school team as a seventh grader.

South Carolina was patient about bringing Fulwiley along, but she still made the SEC All-Freshman team while averaging 11.6 points (44.0%), 2.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists during the regular season.

Fulwiley has elevated her game during the postseason. She’s averaged 18.5 points (55.1%), 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 steals over the last four games and was named the MVP of the SEC Tournament all while playing just 18 minutes per game.

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Prediction: South Carolina 82, Indiana 63

Indiana can't afford an off night shooting the ball like it had against Oklahoma. It also can't afford a similar type of slow start that proved costly in losses to Stanford and Iowa.

The Hoosiers will have to play a near-perfect 40 minutes to keep their season alive. It's not impossible, but ... South Carolina just looks like a buzz saw right now. They run about nine deep, have size and don't seem to have any weaknesses.

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana vs South Carolina prediction: March Madness, NCAA women’s pick