COLUMBIA — Dawn Staley made it incredibly clear how she felt about South Carolina women’s basketball‘s effort against UConn on Sunday.
“F,” the Gamecocks coach rated the effort. “F, F, F.”
The No. 4 Gamecocks (23-3, 11-1 SEC) lost 87-58 to the No. 7 UConn (24-3, 14-0 Big East), ending a 71-game home winning streak at Colonial Life Arena. It was the second loss in eight days for South Carolina after falling at Texas.
“We have to play better, we have to perform better, I feel really bad for our fans,” Staley said. “We just really had an embarrassing performance.”
Fifth-year guard Te-Hina Paopao also called the Gamecocks’ performance embarrassing numerous times when she met with the media.
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Sunday marked the worst home loss for South Carolina since 2008, which was also a 29-point loss to the Huskies. Comparatively, the Gamecocks got outrebounded, turned the ball over more and shot worse from the field, from behind the 3-point line and had fewer fast break points.
“There’s no silver lining to it, we got beat and we got beat bad,” Staley said.
After South Carolina lost to Texas by four points, Staley talked about how losses are still unfamiliar territory for her team, who last season finished 38-0 and won the national title. The last time the Gamecocks have lost more than three games was 2020-21 when they went 26-5.
Staley emphasized a new streak at home can start on Thursday against Arkansas. South Carolina has Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky to close the regular season.
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“Just get back to our habits, we’re not going to change,” Staley said when asked where the Gamecocks go from here. “Not going to wholesale change what we’re doing, a loss like this is about toughness, a loss like this isn’t about anything besides getting our players to keep the main thing the main thing. Obviously when you lose like this, there’s something else going on that isn’t just about basketball so we have to figure that out and get back on it.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
