How Bree Hall got her groove back with South Carolina women’s basketball
The gym lights dimmed. A single spotlight hit her like a semi truck. And everyone in the room started to whisper.
“Look at you,” the voices would say.
“Oh my God, you’re such a loser.”
Welcome inside the mind of Bree Hall, into the scene her brain used to show her when she made a mistake on the basketball court. No amount of reassurance seemed to boost her self-confidence.
“I just lacked it so badly,” Hall told The State.
“I didn’t feel like I was a factor. .... For some reason, in my own self, I didn’t feel like I was an asset to the team.”
But ever since South Carolina’s 65-58 victory Nov. 30 over North Carolina, where the junior starting guard sank a game-cementing bucket in the final two minutes, she’s had a different air about her. Through the 12-game stretch, Hall has stood taller, smiled wider and led the Gamecocks as their most accurate shooter.
She found a way out of her head. Now she’s helping No. 1 South Carolina find itself.
Transitioning to college from high school basketball, where she finished as the all-time leading scorer at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio, was a challenge. She went to USC because she wanted to be part of a team. Eager to make an impact, she also went with the goal of starting right away.
Then came her first on-court workout.
Brea Beal — a junior at the time — did a crossover and hit Hall in the chest. The contact knocked her on the ground. So much for snagging somebody’s spot.
“That was the most eye-opening moment ever,” Hall said.
“I realized, maybe we need to go a different direction, because it’s just not that easy. And there was a lot of tears, and a lot of upset moments.”
Fear found its way into Hall’s mind. The packed-out crowds, the possibility of making a mistake — both overwhelmed her to the point of inaction. Perhaps it was better to do nothing than to do something wrong.
“She wouldn’t say it,” Hall’s mother, LaShauna Hall, told The State, “but subconsciously what she’s telling her body to do, nothing was happening. She’s just passing the ball out there because she’s like, ‘What if I miss? What if I get blocked? What if this happens? What if that happens?’
“It consumed her.”
Then, Bree Hall’s sophomore season ended with a moment she’ll never forget.
Previously undefeated South Carolina fell 77-73 to Iowa in the NCAA Final Four. It marked the end of the beloved “Freshies” careers. Beal, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Laeticia Amihere and Olivia Thompson would graduate from USC, leaving the team largely in Hall’s hands.
Afterward, Hall and coach Dawn Staley shared an intense moment.
“She looked me dead in my face and said, ‘Get us back here, Breezy,’ ” Bree said.
No pressure.
Hall was one of three returning upperclassmen for the Gamecocks in 2023-24. Her new veteran status thrust her into a leadership — and starting — role for the first time since her senior year of high school. Boston, Hall’s best friend and former teammate, worked with her throughout the 2022-23 season to prepare for that moment.
“I remember constantly being in Breezy’s ear like, ‘You’re gonna have to make sure you’re talking. You’re gonna have to make sure you’re doing the little things.’ I would drop those nuggets here,” Boston told The State. “Sometimes she would get so annoyed at me like, ‘Aliyah, I get it.’ I’m like, ‘I’m just gonna keep going.’ Because being a leader, especially on a top team for Coach Staley, is something that takes a lot, because you know the standard of South Carolina.”
But when her time came, Hall still struggled with self-doubt. She called her mom during the beginning of this season to unload the thoughts she was harboring deep down.
“I’m terrible at this,” LaShauna Hall remembers Bree telling her. “I don’t know what it is. I’m just terrible.”
LaShauna and Bree’s dad, Bryan Hall, encouraged their daughter to talk with Staley, but Bree had a hard time being vulnerable with her head coach.
“It’s your mom, and then it’s Coach,” Bree said. “So I would tell my mom everything. Every thought that comes to my head. Coach, I just felt like I couldn’t tell her the things that I was talking about with my mom.”
Not long before South Carolina’s UNC game, one of LaShauna’s friends, whose daughter plays basketball at Princeton, encouraged LaShauna to connect with Staley. Staley does a good job of checking in every once in a while, reaching out around birthdays, holidays and various other occasions. But this phone call would allow LaShauna to facilitate a conversation that needed to happen between Staley and her daughter.
The two women talked, and Staley seemed surprised to hear the extent to which Bree was struggling. Staley told LaShauna her daughter was in good shape, always showing up to practice prepared and never causing any problems.
LaShauna again encouraged Bree to talk to Staley, who now knew exactly what was going on: Bree had created a monster in her head. With Staley’s help, they could slay it together.
“She is your boss, but she also is your confidant,” LaShauna said to Bree. “She is your soft place to land.”
Bree and Staley finally had their conversation. Staley told Bree she understood what she was going through, reassuring her that it was a normal and temporary feeling.
Bree might have had her doubts, but Staley had none.
“I think that definitely flipped the script in my head,” Bree said.
When the Gamecocks arrived in Chapel Hill, Hall felt different. She played with ease, scoring 15 points in South Carolina’s hardest-fought victory of the season. Her final three points came from the left wing at 2:08 left in the game, giving USC its largest lead, 60-52.
Usually, Hall overthought during games. She got caught up in stats and what everyone else on the court was doing. Against UNC, her mind was empty — and that was a good thing.
“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, my team doesn’t need me. They can do it,’ ” Hall said. “I felt like they needed me. And I had this confidence and this just winning mentality going into that game.”
She found her voice in the huddle that night.
“Who cares?” Hall told center Kamilla Cardoso after she missed a bucket.
“We’re good,” she assured sophomore guard Raven Johnson.
“Keep shooting,” she urged senior guard Te-Hina Paopao.
From then on, Hall has averaged 11.9 points per game on a team-best 60.5% clip, including 60.9% from 3. She tied her career high of 18 points at Bowling Green and set a new personal record with 21 at Missouri.
“She’s confident. She’s level-headed, and she’s playing her best basketball,” Boston said.
And she’s having fun. Her parents see it.
“I can look at her and just tell that she’s happy out there, that she’s comfortable,” LaShauna Hall said. “She’s found her space.”
Bree’s energy seems contagious. When she and Paopao are shooting, Bree said, it emboldens their teammates to shoot as well, turning what had been a weak point for the Gamecocks into one of their most deadly weapons.
The spotlight is on Hall, but not in the way she thought it was before. It doesn’t emphasize her mistakes, but highlights her persistence, and she is making the most of her moment.
“She’s finding herself,” Staley said. “…I think her experience here at South Carolina, and all the things that created mental strength, is going to carry her throughout the rest of her life.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 7:15 AM.
