It’s never about “if” for Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, but it’s “how.”

Yet again in Birmingham, South Carolina’s “how” was the same in March: clutch plays from clutch players.

The No. 1-seeded Gamecocks held on to take down Duke in a 54-50 victory on Sunday, punching its ticket to a record-fifth straight Final Four appearance.

The Gamecocks will face Texas or TCU in the Final Four on Friday evening.

Down 42-38 going into the fourth quarter, South Carolina broke out the fourth quarter on runs of 8-0 and 12-4, highlighted by a pair of jumpers from Sania Feagin.

Tournament MVP Chloe Kitts scored the final 6 points for South Carolina with four free throws — two with five seconds left to play — and a layup with 1:47 left to play.

Kitts finished with a team-high 14 points, with 8 coming in the final 10 minutes of the matchup.

Feagin finished with 12 points and a game-high 8 rebounds in the victory for the Gamecocks, shooting 6-for-11 from the field; Te-Hina Paopao finished with 9 points left to play.

Star freshman Toby Fournier finished with a game-high 18 points for Duke, going 8-for-17 from the field in 31:38 off the bench and grabbing 6 rebounds.

Ashlon Jackson scored 13 points for Duke and Oluchi Okananwa grabbed a team-high 7 rebounds.

This story will be updated.