Strong halftime response lifts South Carolina women's basketball to championship game

South Carolina women’s basketball entered halftime of Saturday’s Final Four contest staring down the barrel of another season-ending loss to the UCONN Huskies.

The two-point deficit frustrated head coach Dawn Staley. When the Gamecocks hit the locker room, she had an animated speech to her team.

“We couldn’t be scared to play on this stage, especially against UConn. They were undefeated,” senior guard Ta’Niya Latson said. “But we had to keep fighting. We were obviously down by two points, and we were playing into their hands.”

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball! 🏀

Once Staley calmed down, she let her team know the key points they needed to hear to turn the game around. Their defense in the opening half remained elite despite the struggles. The Gamecocks held UCONN stars Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong to 10 combined first-half points. Additionally, UCONN’s 26 points marked its lowest opening half points total since March 30, 2024, against Duke (23).

But the Gamecocks were a stone’s throw away offensively, too. They just needed to meet the moment.

“We’re right there. Hold a team like UConn to 26 points, you’re doing some really great things,” Staley said.

South Carolina responded with a 12-2 run to open the third quarter en route to an eventual 62-48 victory over the Huskies.

Sophomore forward Joyce Edwards said her coach told the team to go out and leave no regrets in the second half. At the break, South Carolina was shooting a meager 32 percent from the field. Additionally, no Gamecock player was shooting above 50 percent individually.

“I just think our offense was not making the right decisions,” Staley said. “We just had to make quicker decisions. We had put ourselves in positions where we got to play a little bit faster because they slowed it down.”

South Carolina committed nine turnovers in the opening half against the Huskies. The offensive miscues led to 10 points off turnovers in the first half for UCONN. When the tide shifted in the second half, the game started to speed up. The Gamecocks were no longer content with playing UCONN’s style of basketball.

Another important message from Staley to her team at halftime was to keep up their defensive pressure, Raven Johnson said. Though she missed time early in the game with foul trouble, she heeded her coach’s halftime message. That’s why, when she had a chance to fully flip the game, she took it.

With the score deadlocked at 26, Connecticut’s Ashlynn Shade got caught in the post. Scrambling, she tried to kick the ball out to KK Arnold as Johnson stepped in to intercept it. The steal gave Johnson a clear path to the basket.

Stop. Steal. Score. South Carolina took its first lead since the second quarter, 28-26. After that point, they never relinquished it again.

“I was just trying to hunt the ball,” Johnson said. “I was just trying to get the ball out of their hands because they’re really good when they run their offensive sets. [The] ball [was] in my hand, and I just went to go lay the ball up.”

🏀 GamecocksW newsletter: WBB coverage delivered straight to your inbox!

However, the third quarter run didn’t have UCONN going away quietly into the night. With four minutes to go, a clutch three from Sarah Strong pulled the Huskies back within four. But a clutch block by Edwards in transition kept the Huskies from cutting it to a one-score game.

On the other end, Agot Makeer put in a layup to put South Carolina back up six. From that point, the Gamecocks never looked back. Over the final four minutes, they held UCONN without a field goal as the Huskies missed their final five shots.

Staley did not realize that her team had held UCONN scoreless for that long. However, she was very complimentary of her defense down the stretch.

“I just thought that we made it real difficult for them to get clean looks. We made them put the ball on the floor,” Staley said. “That’s disruption to UCONN, because they’re a passing team, they like to assist … If they’re allowed to play that way throughout an entire game, they win. I thought our players just locked in.”

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball!