What Dawn Staley said after South Carolina’s SEC title game loss to Texas
For the first time since 2022, South Carolina isn’t the SEC Tournament champion.
The Gamecocks women’s basketball team dropped Sunday’s championship game 78-61 to Texas at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, snapping a streak of three straight conference tournament titles.
It was USC’s first SEC Tournament loss since losing the 2022 championship game to Kentucky in Nashville. The Gamecocks were national champs that season.
Here’s what South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said postgame Sunday:
If she considered calling a timeout earlier in the first quarter
(Texas built a 14-0 lead before Staley called timeout at the 6:47 mark.)
“No. If I did, I would have called a timeout. Just let our players play through it a little bit. I don’t usually do it. See if we could gather ourselves and make a play on both sides of the basketball. We couldn’t do it.”
On Texas’ big start in first quarter
“I think they made plays. They forced us to play a certain way. Turning the ball over isn’t something that you can start a game like Texas and give them a head start, give them a 12-point lead.”
“We just — it didn’t feel right, just from a mental and physical standpoint. You can try to keep pushing through, but every time that we would try to make a run, we had just mental lapses, like uncharacteristic turnovers.”
“Some of it was us, some of it was Texas. They took advantage of it every single time, no matter who caused it.”
On Texas shooting 54% from the field
(Texas’ 54.0 FG% was the highest by a USC opponent this year.)
“We just didn’t play well (defensively). I mean, they were moving pretty fast, and we weren’t moving as quickly as they were.”
“When you think about it, maybe there’s a little fatigue. We’ve had depth when we got to this point (in other seasons). We played our starters some heavy minutes (Saturday vs. LSU). So you’ve got to look at that and maybe think that contributed.”
“A little mental fatigue, physical fatigue. But when you’re not hitting on all cylinders, like Texas, you’re going to feel it in every category.”
Her message to the team postgame
“Our team knows we didn’t play our best basketball. Not nearly what we’re capable of doing. I told them that the last time we lost in this situation (in 2022), we won a national championship.”
“So you’ve got to think about that. It might be the very thing this team needs. It’s not what I would think yesterday, coming in today. But now that we’re here and it’s a reality, you search for things that have a connection that can give your team what it needs to make this run for a national championship.”
“I do think we have enough in the room to do that. We’ll rest and recoup at the end of the week and start that journey.”
On freshman F Alicia Tournebize playing 19 minutes
“I told our team I thought we got stronger if we could get Ali to play the way she did. She played inspired. Not playing yesterday (vs. LSU) makes her think about the things she needs to do to play. If she can give us that. ... She’s got seven rebounds on a great rebounding team like Texas. She held her own defensively. So it was pretty good and promising to know that.”
“We needed scoring. We know Ali can score the basketball. I thought she did a pretty good job (six points on 3-5 shooting). I think we should probably have gotten her the ball a little bit more in the block and let her go to work.”
“But we made a step forward in our journey to win a national championship. Somebody like her will add to the depth that we need to make this run.”
On a quiet game for G Ta’Niya Latson (4 points)
“I think we were just playing an uphill battle. We had to run some offenses that would give us multiple looks. I mean, usually ... we use her a little bit more than we used her (today). And we expended a lot of energy on defense, so it was hard.”
“And they made it difficult for wing entries. So when it’s like that, it’s a lot of dribble entries. ... When it’s like that, your offensive package shrinks (for wing players).”
This story was originally published March 8, 2026 at 5:49 PM.
