What Dawn Staley said about USC improvements after season’s first loss at Mizzou
Dawn Staley pointed out, following the first loss of the 2021-22 season in its SEC opener to Missouri, that the stat sheet didn’t look too different from the Gamecocks’ 12 wins before Thursday.
She’s right. The South Carolina women’s basketball team (12-1) shot below 40% for the fourth consecutive game; out-rebounded the Tigers, as the Gamecocks have every other opponent except Stanford; and shot below 30% with 3-pointers for the sixth time in 13 games.
But unlike its first 12 wins, No. 1 USC lost 70-69 in overtime to unranked Missouri (12-2), only the seventh time in history an unranked program has beaten the nation’s top team. The Tigers pulled off the upset without five players, including star scorer Aijha Blackwell.
Hayley Frank and Lauren Hansen, who made Mizzou’s game-winning layup, each scored 21 points as the Tigers shot efficiently Thursday, going 43.1% from the field, 46.7% from behind the arc and 81.3% from the free throw line.
“Our team can learn,” Staley said in the postgame press conference Thursday. “They listen to you the most in losses.”
Staley said there’s a tendency not to look at areas of improvement after wins, but the Missouri loss should grab the Gamecocks’ attention.
“We’ve got to shoot the ball better,” Staley said. “We’ve got to play with better pace. We’ve got to do a better job at getting our post players the ball, especially when they are as efficient as they are. Gotta hit shots, gotta take good shots.
“Our defense has to be better, because it’s been better, but Missouri spread us out and they make you guard the 3-point line and all the motion in between that.”
Preseason All-American forward Aliyah Boston played 28 minutes in the Gamecocks’ loss due to early foul trouble, an amount of time Staley said wasn’t enough against a team like Mizzou, which made it difficult to get stops.
Boston finished with a double-double, 17 points and 12 rebounds, leading in both categories for USC at Missouri. Staley said the bottom line with Boston was that she wasn’t able to get enough touches in the paint, where South Carolina scored 42 of its 69 points.
“Twenty-eight minutes is a lot of minutes, but it’s not enough for us to survive in a game where Missouri did a great job,” Staley said. “(They) packed it in like they normally do, and we just didn’t hit enough shots tonight.”
South Carolina returns home Sunday to play Mississippi State at 6 p.m. in Colonial Life Arena. The Gamecocks had been originally scheduled to play Ole Miss on Sunday, but a positive COVID-19 test, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals in the Rebels’ program forced that matchup to be postponed.
USC was able to schedule a game against Mississippi State (9-3), which hasn’t played an SEC opponent yet due to postponed games with Florida and Kentucky due to COVID-19 in the Gators’ and Wildcats’ programs.
South Carolina Missouri box score
SOUTH CAROLINA (12-1)—Boston 7-14 2-4 17, Saxton 3-5 0-0 6, Beal 3-7 0-0 7, Cooke 4-19 0-1 10, Henderson 2-12 3-4 7, Amihere 1-3 0-0 2, Cardoso 7-9 0-0 14, Littleton 1-4 0-0 3, Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Russell 1-2 0-0 3, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 29-76 5-9 69
MISSOURI (12-2)—Frank 7-8 4-4 21, Williams 5-14 2-3 12, Dembele 4-10 1-2 11, Hansen 8-19 3-3 21, Troup 1-7 1-2 3, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Dorroh 0-0 2-2 2, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 25-58 13-16 70
Halftime—Missouri 33-26. 3-Point Goals—South Carolina 6-21 (Boston 1-2, Beal 1-2, Cooke 2-8, Henderson 0-3, Amihere 0-1, Littleton 1-4, Russell 1-1), Missouri 7-15 (Frank 3-4, Dembele 2-4, Hansen 2-5, Troup 0-2). Assists—South Carolina 15 (Henderson 7), Missouri 10 (Troup 4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—South Carolina 47 (Boston 5-12), Missouri 37 (Williams 3-12). Total Fouls—South Carolina 15, Missouri 11. Technical Fouls—None. A—6,139.
This story was originally published December 31, 2021 at 9:36 AM.
