What Dawn Staley said after South Carolina WBB NCAA Tournament win over Indiana
The South Carolina Gamecocks defeated Indiana, 64-53, in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament on Sunday.
Here is what Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said after the victory from her press conference and with meeting with local reporters after the game.
Opening statement on win over Indiana
Dawn Staley: Just want to say congratulations to Indiana for making it to the second round and giving us a hard-fought game. We knew coming in it would be very similar to the basketball that was displayed out there for the last two hours.
Proud of our team, the way they gutted up and didn’t flinch. It wasn’t pretty, but at this time, it doesn’t have to be. You’ve just got to score more points than the other team and work the kinks out as we advance into the tournament.
What about Te-hina’s Paopao’s defense, which included a career-high four blocks?
Staley: Pao’s defense was great. It was executed to a T. That young lady, I don’t want to butcher her last name, we just call her Shay. Shay does a really good job going left. She is unconscious going left. She is super efficient, and Pao just sat on her left hand, forced her right. I think she got 12 points, but she would have gotten a lot more if she would have gotten into the flow of going left.
I thought she did a great job. We told her that in the locker room. I’m happy that we’re helping to complete Pao, because for the longest, her reputation is that she can just flat-out shoot the ball. She’s a consummate point guard, and I don’t think her defense gets enough credit in the past two years that she’s been with us because it’s gotten better and better and better, and then she had performances like she did today.
What about the veterans stepping up like Bree Hall and Sania Fegan?
Staley: It’s huge. I mean, we have to lean on our most experienced players. They’ve been here before. They’ve done it time and time again, through being on the court or just seeing it from sitting on the bench. That is experience, being in these situations.
I really don’t want to — we don’t take any of that for granted. We didn’t think we were just going to walk over two opponents in the first and second round, but getting to a Sweet 16 is hard. It’s hard, and to do it in as many consecutive years as we’ve done it, it doesn’t get old. It’s not taken for granted, and we cherish the opportunity to move to the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament.
What about going to your 11th straight Sweet 16?
Staley: The expectation is for us to advance out of the first and second round. The expectation is for us to advance out of the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. It isn’t that easy. I don’t wish it was that easy. Anything that is extremely hard, you have to work through. You go to work through the ball not going through like you envisioned it or you aren’t executing through a defensive standpoint. National championship teams are usually challenged on their journey to winning it. So, I think we are well in character about what happened today and being challenged.
MilLaysia Fulwiley only played nine minutes tonight. Anything wrong with her?
Staley: No, I think she got off to a slow start and we had good combinations in. Usually, it is Lay (MiLaysia) out there in one of the combinations. But I thought she handled it well. We need her to play well and it wasn’t anything out there but other units playing well.
It was first time you trailed at halftime since UConn. Did you need to say anything? Or was it entirely player led?
Staley: I think when we’re down at halftime, which is not very often, you want to keep the same energy that you have when you’re up. They know, like, they really know, we’ve got an experienced group of players that really know what needs to take place in order for us to correct what was going on out there. Part of it was just we missed good shots. Part of it was we missed bad shots. Part of it was our defense wasn’t hitting on all cylinders.
But over time — like, the game is 40 minutes. I think within that time frame, we can get to our good habits, and we did that coming out of halftime. In the third quarter, we got a chance to get Chloe (Kitts) on the floor, keep her on the floor a little bit longer than we did in the first half.
She actually — when she got her second foul, she was like, I was ball pressuring. You were not only ball pressuring, you were fouling. Like, stay in the game, Chloe.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 6:36 PM.
