What Dawn Staley said after South Carolina’s upset loss to Oklahoma
No. 2 South Carolina women’s basketball was upset by Oklahoma on the road Thursday night.
The No. 16 Sooners used an offensive onslaught in overtime to pull out the 94-82 win over the No. 2 Gamecocks. The loss was just the second of the season for South Carolina (19-2, 5-1 SEC).
Here are the highlights of what South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said after the loss.
“It’s not rocket science”
When momentum was seemingly all in favor of Oklahoma, the Gamecocks found some life late in the fourth quarter.
An 8-0 run in the final two minutes of the game helped South Carolina take a 75-73 with 42 seconds to go but free throws from OU’s Reagan Beers tied things up at 75-75 with 18 seconds left. South Carolina couldn’t get a shot off on its final possession of the fourth quarter, leading to overtime.
The Sooners proceeded to wallop the Gamecocks in overtime to secure the win. Oklahoma outscored South Carolina 19-7 in OT.
“You saw it,” Staley said of her team’s OT performance. “They ran into a team that actually wanted to win more, and they made winning plays and we didn’t. I mean, it’s not really rocket science. It’s really a very simplistic thing.”
Aaliyah Chavez’s overtime heater
Aaliyah Chavez showed up when the Sooners needed her most Thursday night.
Oklahoma’s star freshman (who averages over 18 points per game) had just 11 points in regulation. Chavez exploded in overtime and scored 15 points to ice the game for the Sooners. She drilled four 3-pointers in overtime and finished with 26 points.
“She was great,” Staley said. “She ran her team, hit big shots, delivered the ball, everything that you want your point guard to do. She’s having a great freshman year.”
What are the postgame conversations like with the team?
Staley was asked what the postgame conversations were like with her team after the loss as well as the adjustments she’d like to make before a matchup with No. 5 Vanderbilt on Sunday. Her answer was to the point:
“[The] conversations are real. We didn’t do enough to win. And when you do that in our league, especially on the road, you pay for it. You pay for it with defeat. It’s not a familiar territory for us, but we’ll live. It’s part of it. … Our goals are still in front of us. Every single one of them are still right in front of us. So we’ll live, we’ll learn, and we’ll move on and get back to prepping for Vandy tomorrow.”
Ta’Niya Latson’s struggle
Veteran guard Ta’Niya Latson was a non-factor in South Carolina’s loss to Oklahoma.
Latson, who led the nation in scoring last year and is second for the Gamecocks this season, scored just six points against the Sooners. That is tied for the second-lowest number of points Latson has scored in her career.
She was 1 for 10 from the field, marking the second time in her career she’s made only one free throw in a game (which is tied for a career low).
“Just struggle,” Staley said of Latson’s performance. “I mean, didn’t really get good looks at the basket, didn’t really get out in transition a whole lot. Think we got to do a better job of putting her in positions where she can really score, [where] she can make plays. Wasn’t there tonight, thought she forced it a little bit. And sometimes you do that when you’re used to scoring points. But we got to do a better job of putting her in a better position to score and feel good about it.”
Raegan Beers’ impact for Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s star forward Raegan Beers struggled against South Carolina the last time the teams matched up, in the SEC Tournament last season.
That was not the case Thursday.
Even when Beers found herself in foul trouble, she still affected the game. Beers finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
“She’s a tough guard,” Staley said. “I thought she got her positioning, which is her normal positioning, and that you can’t allow. You can’t allow her to have direct passes into it, you got to try and lob it over the top and get some help behind it. We just didn’t have enough of that. Credit to Beers. She did a great job fighting for her position, and she was constant with it. For us, I thought we’ve done better jobs in previous years, particularly last year. But we got a new set of bigs that have to understand what you need to do … to not give her that sweet spot.”
