After Clemson win, Dawn Staley was a lot happier with Gamecock fans than her players

No. 4 South Carolina women’s basketball took the lead a few minutes into Thursday’s rivalry game against Clemson and never looked back, cruising to a 66-36 blowout of the Tigers, the Gamecocks’ eighth win in a row in the series.

But afterward, USC coach Dawn Staley and her star player A’ja Wilson pronounced themselves unsatisfied with the result. It was South Carolina’s lowest point total of the season, and for several stretches of play the Gamecocks appeared to sputter slightly, the result of poor focus leading to sloppy miscues, they said.

Both Wilson and Staley repeatedly said South Carolina played an undisciplined game despite winning, something that Wilson said would be corrected quickly in practice.

There was one unit, however, that drew universal praise from, Staley, Wilson and redshirt senior Lindsey Spann: the fans.

South Carolina transported four busloads of supporters from Columbia to Clemson for the game, and those fans filled up almost two sections in Littlejohn Coliseum, matching Tiger fans’ cheers and making for a raucous environment on the road.

“It kind of felt like we were in (Colonial Life Arena) — we were wearing white, we saw the fans coming in and the towels waving. All we needed was ‘Sandstorm,’ and I’m pretty sure Clemson would not play that. It’s great seeing the support. Gamecock Nation never fails when it comes to things like that,” Wilson said.

The official attendance on the night was 1,589, several hundred of whom were wearing free garnet and white t-shirts South Carolina distributed on the busses.

The number of supporters who turned out on a week night for an easy win impressed Staley, who said her team could do well to emulate their supporters’ dedication and discipline.

“Our fans are the most disciplined of us all. They came out and they support us and they cheer for us throughout good or bad play,” Staley said. “So if we can be as disciplined as our fans, then we’ll find ourselves like they are ... they create the No. 1 fanbase in the country. So we got to strive to beat our fans.”

South Carolina has led the nation in attendance three years in a row. During the Gamecocks’ home opener against Alabama State last Friday, the team unveiled a banner in Colonial Life Arena celebrating the accomplishment. For that game, USC announced an official attendance of 13,723, believed to be the highest number of any major woman’s program this season.

Staley reiterated her point in a tweet soon after the game, thanking fans directly and saying that “we strive to be as disciplined as you are.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 10:47 PM with the headline "After Clemson win, Dawn Staley was a lot happier with Gamecock fans than her players."