South Carolina Basketball: Tip-off time, network revealed for NCAA Tournament game

On Friday, South Carolina basketball handled their business in the 1-16 game in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks blew out Presbyterian (for the 2nd time this season) 91-39 to move on to the Round of 32 where another regular season rematch awaited.

The North Carolina Tar Heels knocked off Michigan State in their opening round game, setting up a date between the border rivals on Sunday.

Now, the two teams know when they will play.

Late on Friday night, the South Carolina-North Carolina matchup was scheduled for a 1:00 PM EST tip on Sunday at Colonial Life Arena. The game will be broadcast on ABC and will be streamable on the ESPN app and the March Madness Live app.

Most South Carolina basketball fans will remember that the Tar Heels gave the Gamecocks a scare back in November. Playing in Chapel Hill as part of the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge, the two teams squared off in what would finish as a 65-58 victory for the visitors, but UNC actually led at halftime and was within 2 points of USC in the 4th quarter.

Dawn Staley's team played without Kamilla Cardoso (serving a one-game suspension for her role in the SEC Tournament Championship Game dust-up against LSU) and Bree Hall (undisclosed "precautionary" reasons) against Presbyterian, but they expect to have both players back for Sunday's game against North Carolina.

The Gamecocks will be playing in their final game at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday as the bracket shifts to Albany, New York for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. The winner of South Carolina-North Carolina will move on to face the winner of the other final game in the Columbia pod.

Indiana and Fairfield play at 1:30 on Saturday, and Oklahoma and Florida Gulf Coast play at 4:00 on Saturday; the two victors will take the court on Monday. Whichever team emerges as the last team standing from that group will play the winner of the Battle of the Carolinas next Friday in Albany.