South Carolina ‘got punked’ but can use loss to Texas as learning opportunity
South Carolina entered halftime of its matchup with Texas on Sunday down 36-27. With the game on the line and all the momentum seemingly swinging in Texas’ direction, Dawn Staley didn’t hold back in when addressing the No. 2 Gamecocks at the break.
“Coach got on us, saying that we got punked,” Te-Hina Paopao said.
That message lit a short-lived fire for South Carolina. The Gamecocks opened the second half on a 6-0 run and got back into the game after outscoring the Longhorns 22-13 in the third quarter.
USC was able to tie the game but could never gain the lead before ultimately losing 66-62. The loss snapped the Gamecocks’ 57-game regular-season SEC win streak.
“We don’t like when she says that we get punked,” Paopao said of the third quarter. “So we had to come out with toughness, which we should have started during the game but we didn’t. And so we just needed that pep talk and that’s what happened. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
Texas’ ability to disrupt South Carolina all afternoon long was the ultimate key to the Longhorns victory, Staley said.
“We worked on some things that we could do to relieve the pressure, but it didn’t work,” Staley said. “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.”
By the time the Gamecocks were able to adjust and find some sort of rhythm, it was too late, Paopao said.
“They were blowing up our sets,” Paopao said. “I think we just have to do a better job getting open and being patient. I thought we were a little nervous in the beginning, a little jittery, and it took us a while to calm down. And when we calmed down, it was a little too late for us to get back on the horse and get that W.”
Texas’ size in the post gave South Carolina fits on Sunday. The combination of Madison Booker, Kyla Oldacre and Taylor Jones clogged up the interior and was something the Gamecocks were unprepared for, Paopao said.
It didn’t help that USC wasn’t “getting anything” from the bigs who were playing, Staley said.
South Carolina ran a four-guard lineup for a majority of the fourth quarter and left post players like Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts on the bench for the entirety of the period.
“We need (Bree Hall) on (Madison) Booker, or as much as we could stay matched up on her,” Staley said. “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.”
A big loss to UCLA early in the season is slightly different than a close loss to Texas with a month left of regular-season play, but both defeats present learning opportunities for the Gamecocks, Paopao said.
“From UCLA, we knew that we needed to be tough and that’s what we took with us for the next couple games in that long stretch that we had,” Paopao said. “Now we’re going to use this as a learning opportunity that we don’t want to get punked no more. It’s going to be scary for the next few teams.”
