‘Built for big-time moments’: Chloe Kitts delivers for Gamecocks in Elite Eight win
When South Carolina’s season was on the line Sunday, Dawn Staley went to Chloe Kitts.
Duke had just air-balled a go-ahead 3-point attempt, and the Gamecocks had a 52-50 lead and the ball with seven seconds left in their NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game.
Staley called a timeout and designed a play where the ball would end up with Kitts. The USC junior wasn’t sure she was the best option.
“Coach drew up a play and she said the ball was going to get to me,” Kitts said, admitting she consulted with teammate Te-Hina Paopao about the decision. “So I walked out there and I was like, ‘Pao, can you get the ball? Can you get the ball?’ And Pao was like, ‘Girl, what? Go get the ball.’ “
Kitts did, in fact, get the ball and was fouled — sending her to the free-throw line with a two-point lead and five seconds left on the clock at Legacy Arena.
“I got the ball and I went to the line and I was just taking a deep breath,” Kitts said. “I told myself that my coach wanted me to have the ball at the end of the game because she knew I could make my free throws.”
She sank the first attempt. Then the next. Four-point lead.
“I told myself that I’m really good at basketball and I made both of them,” Kitts said.
The successful free throws were the nails in the coffin South Carolina needed. The No. 1 seed Gamecocks held on to secure a fifth-straight trip to the Final Four with a 54-50 win over No. 2 Duke.
Kitts finished with the game with a team-high 14 points as well as four rebounds. Of those points, eight came in the fourth quarter.
“After the game, (Kitts) was like, ‘Sorry, I gotta be better. I gotta do better,’ ” Paopao said. “I was like, bro, what are you talking about? You literally brought us home.”
Kitts was named the Birmingham Region 2 All-Tournament Team’s Most Outstanding Player. This comes three weeks after she earned the same award at the SEC Tournament.
Kitts averaged 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game across South Carolina’s Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.
She’s been playing some of the best basketball of her career in the last month.
The growth had Staley reminiscing about Kitts’ decision to enroll at South Carolina in December of the 2022-23 season.
“She skipped her high school year and came to us halfway through the school year — probably thought it was the worst decision that she made when she was going through it, but then the following year she was a lot better,” Staley said. “But her maturation process from everything, she’s grown in every aspect of her life. Mentally, physically, emotionally. We have grown-up conversations and I can’t believe it sometimes because of how she came in.”
Staley on her “Carolina Calls” radio show in early March said the version of Kitts that fans were seeing was finally “the Chloe we projected when we started recruiting her.”
Raven Johnson said something changed for Kitts after she scored just six points in South Carolina’s 29-point loss to UConn on Feb. 16.
“I remember her apologizing to us, saying it was her fault that we lost the game,” Johnson said.. “… But after that game, I have seen a different her. She’s a dog, she finds a way to win. Nobody can guard her — she’s unstoppable. She can shoot the three, shoot the mid-range. She does the intangibles. She rebounds.”
Since that loss to UConn, Kitts is averaging 14.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. She’s tallied a triple-double and six double-doubles and has scored less than 10 points just once in that span.
The uptick in production in the last month has come thanks to an increase in confidence and comfort level, Kitts said, and is just further proof she’s turned a corner on the court.
Sunday night was just the latest example.
“She’s a big-time player and she’s built for big-time moments,” Paopao said. “... I’m just proud of her and she’s just got to keep it rolling.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 6:31 PM with the headline "‘Built for big-time moments’: Chloe Kitts delivers for Gamecocks in Elite Eight win."
