Hammered: South Carolina WBB home win streak snapped in 29-point loss to UConn
South Carolina fans packed in to Colonial Life Arena 18,000 strong on Sunday afternoon for one of the most anticipated college women’s basketball games of the year.
Most of those fans likely left shocked and disappointed.
No. 4 South Carolina lost to No. 7 UConn 87-58, snapping a 71-game home win streak and dropping the Gamecocks’ record to 23-3 on the season.
“We got beat, and we got beat bad,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “We did not perform well in any area.”
Credit is due to Geno Auriemma and UConn, who dominated all facets of the game. The Huskies shot the lights out on offense while also boasting a stifling and aggressive defense.
The Gamecocks are 5-10 all-time against the Huskies and had won four straight in the series coming into Sunday. The 29-point defeat was the program’s worst home loss since they fell to UConn in 2008, also by the same margin..
Home win streak snapped
South Carolina entered Sunday’s game with the fourth longest home win streak in NCAA history.
That is no more.
The last time South Carolina lost at Colonial Life Arena prior to Sunday was on Dec. 3, 2020 to N.C. State.
South Carolina’s record (23-3) is the first time since 2020-21 the Gamecocks have lost more than two games in a season. Sunday’s game was USC’s first double-digit loss at home since 2018.
“I feel really bad for our our fams,” Staley said. “They packed the house, they did their part, and we just really had an embarrassing performance. We’ve got to get things back on track. I think probably all of our streaks have been broken this particular year, but it was a hell of a ride. It went 71 straight here. We’ve got a chance to start a new streak on Thursday and we’ve got to get back at it.”
Lopsided offenses
While UConn was on fire from the field all afternoon, it seemed like South Carolina couldn’t buy a bucket.
The Huskies, who have the best team field goal percentage in the country, shot like it on Sunday. UConn was 31 of 71 (43.7%) from the field. The Huskies also were dominant in transition, outscoring South Carolina 31-12 on fast breaks.
UConn got a lot of help from its 3-point shooting. The Huskies were 13 for 28 from beyond the arc, led by Azzi Fudd’s 6 of 10 day. Sunday was the 12th time this season UConn made 10 or more 3-pointers as a team.
Fudd led UConn in scoring with 28 points on 11 of 22 shooting.
“Transition imbalance, bad shots will produce points for a UConn team,” Staley said. “They just don’t allow you to get back in to set your defense up. By the time you think about it, there’s 3s going up and through the net.”
South Carolina shot 40% as a team in the first quarter and only trailed 21-14, but the offense had trouble finding any momentum after that.
The Gamecocks didn’t necessarily shoot poorly, but they struggled to keep anything going offensively. They were 23 for 61 from the field (38%) and shot as low as 33% in the second quarter.
UConn’s defense
The Huskies were all over the place on defense.
UConn forced a respectable amount of turnovers (12) and seemed to keep South Carolina’s offense disrupted all afternoon.
The biggest discrepancy came on the defensive glass. UConn out-rebounded South Carolina 48-29 in the game and recorded 33 defensive rebounds to South Carolina’s 23.
“I know how hard it is to play on the road against a great program like this,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. ”You’re going to have to be not perfect, but you’re going to have to be pretty darn good to be successful down here. ...
“I said our rebounding and transition defense are going to be two things, and we have to win this game with our offense. And I thought in those three things: our rebounding, our transition D and our offense, that’s about as close to perfect as we’ve been all year for sure.”
South Carolina schedule: Next four games
- Feb. 20: vs. Arkansas, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Feb. 23: at Vanderbilt, 3 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Feb. 27: at Ole Miss, 9 p.m. (ESPN or SEC Network)
- March 2: vs. Kentucky, 2 p.m. (ESPN)
Gamecocks vs. UConn series scores
- Dec. 17, 2007: UConn 97, South Carolina 39
- Dec. 28, 2008: UConn 77, South Carolina 48
- Feb. 9, 2015: UConn 87, South Carolina 62
- Feb. 8, 2016: UConn 66, South Carolina 54
- Feb. 13, 2017: UConn 66, South Carolina 55
- Feb. 1, 2018: UConn 83, South Carolina 58
- March 26, 2018: UConn 94, South Carolina 65
- Feb. 11, 2019: UConn 97, South Carolina 79
- Feb. 10, 2020: South Carolina 70, UConn 52
- Feb. 8, 2021: UConn 63, South Carolina 59 (OT)
- Nov. 22, 2021: South Carolina 73, UConn 57
- April 3, 2022: South Carolina 64, UConn 49
- Feb. 5, 2023: South Carolina 81, UConn 77
- Feb. 11, 2024: South Carolina 83, UConn 65
- Feb. 16, 2025: UConn 87, South Carolina 58
This story was originally published February 16, 2025 at 2:53 PM.
