‘Unfamiliar territory’: What Dawn Staley said after South Carolina’s loss to Texas
No. 2 South Carolina fell to No. 4 Texas 66-62 on Sunday. It’s just the second loss of the season for the Gamecocks, who are now 22-2 and 10-1 in SEC play.
The loss snaps South Carolina’s 57-game SEC regulars season win streak that dated back to December 2021.
“It’s unfamiliar territory for us,” Staley said. “This is first game that we’ve lost in two years, I think. The law of averages says at some point, somebody’s gonna get you.”
The game shakes up the SEC standings and leaves South Carolina and Texas tied at the top of the conference with a 10-1 SEC record. The Gameococks won the Jan. 12 matchup with the Longhorns 67-50.
“I‘m just glad they didn’t get us where we can’t survive,” Staley continued. “We still control our own destiny. We do have to look around a little bit and hope somebody knocks Texas or LSU off so we can control it for the rest of the way. I’m sure they’re going to think the same thing with us as well.”
More from Dawn Staley:
On ‘just trying to survive’
“We fought in this particular game. There are some things that we definitely can get better at. This type of game, you’re just trying to survive. You can’t really run your offenses. And players have to make plays at that point because you can design the play up, but they can blow it up with their defense, and they did that a lot tonight. ...
“They disrupted us. We worked on some things that we could do to relieve the pressure, but it didn’t work. It’s a lot easier when you’re practicing and you’re not in this environment. It’s loud, and you can’t hear what the play call is, and you’ve got to improvise a little bit. I thought they did a better job improvising and running their sets. We couldn’t disrupt them as much as we disrupted them at our place. They returned the favor.”
What Texas brings to the SEC
“I think them and Oklahoma just make us, not arguably the best conference in the country — we are. We are solidified with bringing them in. You’ve got a top five program, you’ve got a top 25 program coming into a league that’s already was just unforgiving, and now it’s just survival at this point. Anybody can beat anybody. It’s tough down the stretch, looking forward to the end of the season and the SEC tournament.”
The similarities and differences between USC and Texas
“I think we’re pretty balanced. We’ve got what most people don’t have, which is post depth. We have the ability to be versatile. We defend pretty good. They’ve probably got the advantage in the rebounding. So we’ve got to get better in that area. Great coaching and disciplined basketball teams.”
On outscoring Texas 22-13 in the third quarter
“I think we came out and we did some things that we wanted to do. They had a lot to do with it. They disrupted us. And I think we had a smaller lineup in that we probably don’t practice as much as we need to practice in these type of situations. When you go with a smaller lineup, you’re susceptible to rebounding, you’re susceptible to having a smaller guard on a big. You put yourself in that situation and we got burned a few times with it, and we’ll have to eat that. But that was part of the adjustment.”
On a four guard lineup late in the game
“We need (Bree Hall) on (Madison) Booker, or as much as we could stay matched up on her. So we thought we needed to go to a small lineup. They were pretty small as well. We weren’t getting anything from our bigs. Not getting a whole lot or rebounding, not really a whole lot of scoring where we felt like we could get the advantage. (Texas) did a really good job at covering up and being disruptive and forcing us out of our spots.”
On Texas’ Kyla Oldacre
“Sania (Feagin) is the only one that can guard (Oldacre) — halfway guard her. We give up too much when Chloe (Kitts) or Joyce (Edwards) are on her. We could have tried Adhel (Tac), they’re just not experienced enough. She’s a very experienced post player. I thought she brought it all home for them.”
About the USC-Texas game leading into the Super Bowl
“Quite honestly, we’re it right now, Women’s basketball is it right now. They’re not gonna put just any women’s game on to be be a prelude to the Super Bowl. They put it on because they know the ratings will be there. They knew it was going to be a tightly matched basketball game. I just hope now that people are seeing our game being showcased, that we’ll get the respect in all areas — revenue sharing — we get the respect in all areas that that our game deserves.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 5:06 PM.
