Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina women’s basketball loss in the SEC Championship

South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media after the Gamecocks lost to Texas in the SEC Championship.

Here is everything she had to say.

Dawn, I know you don’t like to call them, but when they’re on that run, 8-0, any thought of trying to call a time-out right there?

“No. If I did, I would have called a time-out. 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.”

What do you attribute that start to for Texas? Was it more them making plays or y’all making mistakes?

“A little bit of both. 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 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.”

I think this is the highest any team has shot against you, percentage-wise, this season. Obviously, some of the turnovers led to that. But felt like Texas was really able to get to the midrange. What stood out to you defensively today that your team didn’t play well enough?

“We just didn’t play well. 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, played our starters some heavy minutes. So you’ve got to look at that and maybe think that contributed to it. 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.”

Dawn, just what was the message to the team afterward to take lessons from this as you regroup and head into the tournament?

“Our team knows we didn’t play our best basketball. Not nearly what we’re capable of doing. Told them that the last time we lost in this situation, 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.”

Dawn, I believe the kids are on spring break coming up this week. What is the schedule getting back?

“We’ll get back at the end of the week, probably Friday. Practice Friday. Take four days off.”

You’ve worked Alicia Tournebize into the rotation quite a bit since she got here. 19 minutes off the bench, she had some really solid minutes. What led to her playing time today, and what did you like from her?

“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 makes her think about the things she needs to do to play. If she can give us that, 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. 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.”

What was the biggest thing that you saw in Madison Booker’s growth this season? She looked comfortable all tournament, really. What did you see from her this whole tournament?

“She played like Maddie Booker. She’s a junior. Juniors have it all together. They know where their spots are. They know how to lead. They know everything that has happened to them over the first two years of their career. They know where the pitfalls are, and they avoid them. She’s done extremely well. When her shot is going like that, they are a real difficult team to beat.”

Dawn, sort of a quiet game for Ta’Niya Latson. What do you think Texas was doing to slow her down?

“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 give her — we use her a little bit more than we used her. 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, and you have to run your sets from places that, options, that you only created one option, and that was a dribble entry. When it’s like that, your offensive package shrinks.”