No. 4 South Carolina lost 87-58 to UConn on Sunday, snapping a 71-game home win streak in the process.
Here’s what South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley had to say about the rare loss at Colonial Life Arena.
On the home streak being snapped
South Carolina’s 71-game win streak was the fourth-longest win streak in NCAA history before it was snapped by the loss to UConn.
“We’ve got to play better,” Staley said. “We’ve got to perform better. I feel really bad for our our fams. They packed the house, they did their part, and we just really had an embarrassing performance. We’ve got to get things back on track. I think probably all of our streaks have been broken this particular year, but it was a hell of a ride. It went 71 straight here. We got a chance to start a new streak on Thursday and we’ve got to get back at it.”
The loss is the first for the Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena since losing to N.C. State on Dec. 3, 2020.
It’s also the worst loss for South Carolina at home since the Gamecocks lost to, coincidentally, UConn in December 2008 — also by 29 points.
Time for changes?
Even though South Carolina lost, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, Staley said.
“You’ve just get back to your habits. We’re not going to change — wholesale change — what we’re doing. A loss like this is about toughness. A loss like this isn’t about anything besides getting our players to just keep the main thing the main thing. Obviously, when you lose like this, there’s something else going on that isn’t just about basketball. So we gotta figure that out and and get back on it.”
South Carolina has been able to bounce back strongly from its previous two losses. When the Gamecocks lost to UCLA early in the season, they responded with a 40-point win over Iowa State. When South Carolina lost to Texas a week ago, it responded by hanging 101 points on Florida in a win.
“You get back to practicing who we are. You get back to just the habits that made us a really good basketball team. I think we’re a little fatigued, mentally and physically. Just a gauntlet of of a season. But there comes a time when you can regroup and get it back. Now will be the perfect time to do that with four games left in the regular season and then going into our SEC tournament.”
An ‘embarrassing performance’
Te-Hina Paopao felt the Gamecocks had been “punked” after the four-point loss to Texas last week.
She felt the same way on Sunday after losing to UConn by 29.
“We just got punked today,” Paopao said. “It’s very much embarrassing. That’s not who we are. It was very much self-inflicted as well. We’ve just got to learn and grow from this opportunity and we’ve just got to do a better job giving effort and being mentally and physically tough.”
Paopao said South Carolina’s defense wasn’t up to standard against UConn on Sunday. The Huskies shot 43.7% from the field, including a 13 3-pointers. Four different players finished with double-digit points for UConn. Azzi Fudd led the way with 28 points, Sarah Strong had 16, Paige Bueckers had 12 and Kaitlyn Chen had 10.
Staley gave South Carolina’s effort on Sunday an “F” grade. Paopao called the effort, especially defensively, “trash.”
“They got 13 threes. You hit 13 threes, it’s damaging to your defense from a physical and psychological standpoint. She hits three threes, I’m gonna stick a little bit closer, then the driving lanes open up because you’re sticking a little bit closer and you’re not in your gap. You’re not in your gap help. They make you think about they made you think about all of those things. They had their way with us. There’s no trying to find a silver lining to it. We got beat. We got beat bad.”
