Missouri coach apologizes for player’s hard foul in loss to South Carolina WBB
.jpg "South Carolina guard Maddy McDaniel fouled hard by Missouri’s Saniah Tyler on Thursday, Feb. 26.")
Missouri head women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper took time to apologize for an intentional foul from one of her players in the Tigers’ 112-71 loss to South Carolina on Thursday.
Late in the first quarter at Colonial Life Arena, Missouri senior guard Saniah Tyler knocked Gamecocks sophomore guard Maddy McDaniel down to the ground hard in transition. McDaniel was going up for a layup but went flying to the court after the hard contact.
Tyler was assessed an intentional foul for the contact. Maryam Dauda shot and made two free throws for McDaniel.
“She lost her composure for that moment and that’s not who we are,” Harper said. “...She is one of the sweetest kids to ever be around. She is just a wonderful person. So, I hate that she lost it, I hate she did that.”
Tyler was taken out of the game after the foul. When she checked back in to the game later she was met with a chorus of boos.
“That’s not who we want to be. We apologize to South Carolina for that,” Harper said. “That’s not a good play, not a good look, and in particular for somebody with that character.”
The boos didn’t stop there. Tyler was boo’d each time she touched the ball for the remainder of the game.
Tyler, who is averaging 3.7 points in 16.2 minutes per game, finished with two points in the loss.
Harper was asked after the game if she felt the boos had an impact on Missouri. She candidly responded the boos didn’t matter.
“This is nothing negative, because the crowd is amazing, but we could go scrimmage that team and that’s what the score is going to be,” Harper said. “We can go scrimmage that team in a closed-door arena, and that’s probably what we’re going to see. They’re good. They didn’t need the help tonight. But, they have a lot of support here.”
