Amihere shoehorned 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks into 16-plus minutes against Norfolk State, and 10 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block into 15-plus minutes against South Florida.
In the first and second rounds, South Carolina’s bench outscored its opponents’ reserves by a combined 71-8.
“They come at you in waves,” South Florida Coach Jose Fernandez said.
A native of Mississauga, Ontario, which neighbors Toronto, Amihere played soccer and ran track as a young girl, which helped her footwork and agility, but she did not play basketball until the sixth or seventh grade. Tall and gangly, she said she felt socially awkward. She grew tired of being asked whether she played basketball and took up the sport just to be able to say yes.
“I was kind of embarrassed being tall,” Amihere said. “But when I started playing basketball, I came into my body. There weren’t a lot of tall women around me before that. It gave me that confidence.”
Still only 14, she became the leading rebounder and shot-blocker at the 2016 under-17 world championships. At 15, she was credited as the first Canadian woman to dunk during a game. At the Tokyo Olympics, Amihere hoped to face the United States and Staley, its coach, but Canada did not reach the knockout rounds. Until then, Amihere said with a laugh, Staley kept messaging her, saying, “I’m cheering for you until we play each other.”
Her college choice was made, in part, in 2017, while Amihere watched Kia Nurse, a fellow Canadian, play for Connecticut in the Final Four as Mississippi State ended the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak and scuttled any chance they’d win a fifth consecutive national title. Two days later, South Carolina defeated Mississippi State and cut down the nets with its first championship.