‘The house is still standing’: Dawn Staley on Oklahoma loss, what Gamecocks learned
South Carolina women’s basketball hasn’t done a lot of losing in recent years. So anytime Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks do drop a game, alarms start sounding across the college basketball landscape.
That was the case Thursday night.
The No. 2 Gamecocks were upset by No. 16 Oklahoma 94-82 on the road in overtime. The Sooners used a big push in overtime to secure the win. The loss was just South Carolina’s second on the year and moved the Gamecocks to 19-2 (5-1 SEC) on the year.
When speaking to local media Friday, Staley admitted the Gamecocks got rattled by the Sooners. But that doesn’t mean the sky is falling.
“Basketball is incredibly easy,” Staley said. “There are things that you naturally do when you’re on the basketball court. If you can play to what people do naturally and read it, you’re gonna be pretty successful. If you can’t be able to do that, you’re gonna get rattled a lot. So we got rattled. But again, all our goals are in front of us. … The house isn’t burning down. The house is still standing. We got bad weather coming, the house will stand even through the bad weather.”
It was anybody’s game Thursday night as the matchup drew to a close. The Gamecocks stole the momentum and the lead with an 8-0 run late that gave USC a two-point lead with 42 seconds left. Then Oklahoma tied the game 75-75 with 18 seconds left.
South Carolina had control of the ball for the final possession of the game but couldn’t get a shot off. Instead, Raven Johnson came off a screen and passed the ball to Joyce Edwards, who turned the ball over and sent the game to overtime. Oklahoma’s Aaliyah Chavez scored 15 points in the extra period to deliver the win for the Sooners.
On Friday, Staley said she was hoping veteran Johnson — who finished with 16 — would “playmake” and deliver the winning shot for the Gamecocks.
“I wanted Raven to keep the ball, she was the one making the shots,” Staley said. “So use the screen, see if there’s an opening and get a shot off because you were making shots. Plain and simple.”
The game wasn’t just decided in those final minutes of regulation and overtime, though. Oklahoma mauled South Carolina in the post. The Sooners out-rebounded the Gamecocks 54-39 and outscored them 50-38 in the paint. Oklahoma’s star forward Raegan Beers fought through constant foul trouble and finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
Staley said there were “a lot of issues” when asked about the main problem defensively (and in general, for that matter) in the game.
“We got exposed in a lot of areas,” Staley said. “It’s really uncharacteristic of us, but you can point to the reasons why. We didn’t box out. We gave up too many transition baskets, easy baskets. If we get them in the half court, I think our defense holds up in the half court. Just too many uncontested layups, I don’t know if it’s fatigue, could have been a little bit of fatigue. … Sometimes when you’re in that environment you lose all of your habits.”
Staley and her staff have had “real conversations” with the team since the loss and emphasized the need for better post play, decision making from the guards, better defense and better “oomph” from the team going forward.
If South Carolina wants to bounce back immediately it’ll have to go through another of the country’s top teams. The Gamecocks are scheduled to play undefeated No. 5 Vanderbilt at home on Sunday.
“We don’t sugarcoat anything,” Staley said. “They understand we need more from a lot of different people. We need more so we got to make changes. We’re committed to winning and doing it the right way.
“You can patch it. You can camouflage it. But when it’s all said and done, when you lose like that, it makes you get back to the things that you do well.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 4:26 PM.
