Despite loss to UConn, Gamecocks’ goals ‘still in front of us,’ Dawn Staley says
South Carolina women’s basketball has played two games in the past week — one at home against an overwhelmed opponent with an outcome that was all but settled by the second quarter, the other against the sport’s preeminent dynasty in an overtime thriller that captivated fans everywhere.
So which one mattered more?
“People may call me crazy, but our Auburn game is more important than the UConn game,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “You lose nothing from the UConn game besides the loss — you’ll gain in some NET points, you’ll gain some just because the game is there. Auburn, for me, is the gateway to what we’re trying to do, is win our league.”
Staley actually made that comment last Wednesday, before her team comfortably defeated Auburn and suffered a heart-breaking loss to Connecticut. But her message after that 63-59 overtime defeat to No. 2 UConn was largely the same.
“Everything that we want is still in front of us. I mean, would it be a great game to get? Yes, absolutely,” Staley said. “But everything else is in front of us. Good teams, good players are able to turn the page and and get ready to play a game on Thursday.”
To Staley’s point, the Gamecocks’ loss the Huskies doesn’t knock them from their perch atop the SEC standings. It might not even cost them a No. 1 seed when the NCAA tournament rolls around. Though of course, that didn’t erase the sting Monday night.
“I mean, a loss is never something that’s easy and you just brush it off,” sophomore forward Aliyah Boston said. “But, I mean, coach said it, our goals are still in front of us. We do still have the rest of our SEC games, so we’re just going to be locked in for every one of those games and just continue to push through.”
On one hand, there’s plenty for the Gamecocks to correct from the loss. They missed layups. They turned the ball over. They didn’t get out in transition and score like they wanted to.
If all of those issues sound familiar, it’s because they’re the same ones Staley has been talking about for weeks now.
“We’ve been missing layups all year. So you can attribute it to UConn’s defense, everybody else’s defense that we’ve played against that we couldn’t put the ball in the hole,” Staley said.
In particular, Staley has talked frequently about not turning the ball over in transition, but the Gamecocks did just that on several occasions Monday. There were also some “poor decisions” late, Staley acknowledged — dribbling into traffic, rushed shots early in possessions, a 3-point attempt from Boston that was ill-advised.
On the other hand, the Gamecocks came through all that and were in position to win late — they led by four points with 2:30 left in regulation and three points with 1:45 left in overtime.
“There’s some quality things that we can take from this game. We found ourselves down seven, and we fought our way back and took the lead up three,” Staley said.
And in that regard, Monday’s contest was vastly different from South Carolina’s only other loss thus far this season, on Dec. 3 against N.C. State.
After that game, Staley didn’t talk about taking any quality things moving forward, instead laying down some harsh truths about her team’s lackluster performance. And while both losses were of the “ugly” variety — poor shooting, not great ball movement, lots of mistakes from both sides — Monday’s contest against UConn did feel different.
Against the Wolfpack, South Carolina was up one point with five minutes to play before N.C. State closed on an 11-2 run. Against the Huskies, USC was on the verge until the very end.
“A positive I would say was that we fought and we continue to play hard,” Boston said Monday night. “ I mean, the game just finished, so we’re gonna have to go back and and just look at what we did and just look at things to improve on.”
The Gamecocks will have to make those improvements quickly, as Staley noted. They take on Missouri this Thursday, then an LSU squad Sunday that pushed them in a 69-65 game earlier this season.
“I think the film will definitely let us all know what it is that needs to be done. You know, (UConn’s) a great team, and you win some, you lose some, but we’re gonna go back to the drawing board, figure it out,” sophomore guard Zia Cooke said.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Despite loss to UConn, Gamecocks’ goals ‘still in front of us,’ Dawn Staley says."
