South Carolina's Chloe Kitts gets a shot off during Sunday's NCAA Tourney win over Indiana in Columbia, S.C. (AP photo)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Bree Hall had 11 points and Chloe Kitts scored all her 10 points in the second half as top seed South Carolina pulled away after trailing at halftime to beat ninth-seeded Indiana 64-53 on Sunday in the women’s NCAA Tournament and reach the Sweet 16 for the 11th straight time.

The Gamecocks (32-3) will take on either fourth-seeded Maryland or fifth-seeded Alabama in the Birmingham 2 Regional next week. Those teams play Monday night.

Not that anyone at Colonial Life Arena was locking South Carolina into that game after a dreadful first-half performance where they shot just 10 of 29 and trailed the Hoosiers 26-25 at the break. But the Gamecocks came out on fire in the third quarter, hitting nine of their first 10 shots for a 20-7 run to take control.

Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said it was a cacophony of player voices during halftime, all identifying what the players had not done the first two quarters and how to get back to being themselves after the break.

“It’s not like a board meeting where there’s one person talking at a time,” Staley said, smiling. “It is chaos.”

Whatever the process, it certainly worked for South Carolina, who hit shot after shot to move in front. When Kitts’ 3-pointer put her team ahead 38-30, she held her arms up in celebration as the cheers rained down.

Hall’s 3-pointer closed the surge to take the game in hand and improve to 18-1 in their past four NCAA Tournaments. The run has included NCAA titles in 2022 and 2024. The team lost to Iowa in the national semifinals in 2023.

“We were all just missing our easy lay-ups, and there wasn’t really flow in game” the first two quarters, Kitts said. “Then the second half, we turned it around.”

Indiana couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Shay Ciezki had 12 points to lead Indiana.

Sania Feagin added 10 points for South Carolina, which improved to 18-0 in home NCAA Tournament games.

Indiana guard Chloe Moore-McNeil said the third quarter, where the Hoosiers got outscored 26-14 and had five of their 16 turnovers, was a mixture of South Carolina stepping up and her team making errors it hadn’t in the first half.

“Obviously, they’re the No. 1 team in the country in terms of transition offense and capitalizing on people’s turnovers,” Moore-McNeil said. “I think, yeah, they did have pressure on us, but at the same time, I think we did have some careless mistakes.

OLE MISS. 69, BAYLOR 63

Madison Scott scored 14 points, including a tiebreaking jumper in the final minute, and Mississippi advanced to the Sweet 16 with a victory over Baylor on the Bears’ home court.

Sira Thienou, playing with gauze stuffed into one of her nostrils, scored 16 points as the Rebels (22-10) won twice in Waco three years after a first-round loss that was the first tournament victory for South Dakota.

Aaronette Vonleh scored 16 points for the Bears (28-8), who failed to advance to the Sweet 16 from their arena for the second time in four seasons under coach Nicki Collen. They had done so eight consecutive times under Kim Mulkey, who won three national championships at Baylor.

Ole Miss, which had the resume to be an early-round host, settled for the No. 5 seed, its highest since 1994, and moved on to the Spokane 1 Regional.

KANSAS STATE 80, KENTUCKY 79

Kansas State forward Temira Poindexter missed her first six shots against Kentucky in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. She finished by hitting eight 3-pointers, and the last one sent the visiting Wildcats to the Sweet 16.

Poindexter made a corner 3 with 56 seconds left in overtime, and Kansas State’s defense did the rest to preserve a victory on Kentucky’s home court.

Fifth-seeded Kansas State (28-7) dodged four misses by No. 4 seed Kentucky (23-8) in the closing seconds to advance to face either JuJu Watkins and top-seeded Southern California or No. 9 seed Mississippi State in a regional semifinal in Spokane, Washington.

NOTRE DAME 76, MICHIGAN 55

Hannah Hidalgo scored 21 points and No. 3 seed Notre Dame routed No. 6 seed Michigan in the second round.

Notre Dame advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive season. The Irish will have a rematch in Birmingham against either TCU or Louisville. The Horned Frogs defeated Notre Dame in the Cayman Islands in November. The Fighting Irish swept Louisville in two ACC regular-season games.

Olivia Miles, who suffered an ankle injury in Notre Dame’s 106-54 victory against Stephen F. Austin in the first round, started for the Fighting Irish. She had eight points, five assists and four rebounds.

Miles said that she didn’t decide to play until 15 minutes before tip-off.

BANGHART’S TAR HEELS FACE WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia’s ball-hawking, full-court press defense stands between third-seeded North Carolina and a trip to the Sweet 16.

As the Tar Heels wrestle with how to exploit it, they are leaning on lessons learned during the thick of the regular season.

“Our kids have had to navigate a variety of pressures,” North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said Sunday. “They’ve had to guard a variety of skill players. They’ve had to deal with a lot of different attacks.”

“I’m not as familiar with the Big 12, but I’m sure that’s what West Virginia gets to lean on too. They get to lean on their body of work. They get to lean on their body of experience.”

Few teams in women’s basketball hound opponents from end-to-end quite like sixth-seeded West Virginia. Heading into Monday’s second-round matchup with the Tar Heels, the Mountaineers (25-7) rank first in the Big 12 and third nationally in forcing turnovers (23.7 per game).

Banghart sees some similarities in style between West Virginia and Louisville, whom North Carolina beat 79-75 last month. Notably, the Tar Heels shot a season-high 68% during the second half of that win. There are also bits and pieces that compare to Duke and Syracuse.

“We played them a couple weeks ago, and it feels like they’ve got Jayda Curry and Taj Roberts, and they turn around and pick you right off the ball,” Banghart said. “It’s probably similar to Louisville, maybe with some concepts of Syracuse. When they get you into a full-man, that’s a little bit more like Duke. So, they’re all a little different.”