Dawn Staley was critical of her South Carolina Gamecocks following the team’s blowout loss at home to UConn on Sunday.
South Carolina lost 87-58 to the UConn Huskies in front of 18,000 fans at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. The defeat ended South Carolina’s 71-game home winning streak.
After the loss, Staley complimented South Carolina’s fans for showing up but was critical of her players for their “embarrassing” play.
“We gotta play better. We gotta perform better. I feel really bad for our fans. They packed the house, they did their part. And we just really had an embarrassing performance. And we gotta get things back on track,” Staley said in her postgame press conference.
Staley is looking ahead to starting a new streak now.
“We got a chance to start a new streak on Thursday, and we gotta get back at it,” said Staley, whose team faces Arkansas on Thursday.
South Carolina entered the game ranked No. 4 in the country and is now 23-3, while UConn is 24-3. Azzi Fudd made six three-pointers and scored 28 points for the Huskies, which was the high mark for the game.
This was South Carolina’s first home loss since Dec. 3, 2020. They were down by 22 at the half, so the game was never really close.
The Gamecocks lost in November against UCLA, and now they have lost twice in a week (they lost to Texas a week ago).
