In title loss to UConn, South Carolina’s imperfect season ends in incomplete repeat mission

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TAMPA, Fla. — Dawn Staley stood still with her arms crossed and her eyes fixated in front of her as the final seconds of South Carolina’s season ticked off the clock. She had already started processing what had happened in the Gamecocks’ 82-59 loss to UConn in Sunday’s national championship.

For that reason, she said she didn’t feel heartbroken. “You can see it happening in real-time, and you can understand why you got beat,” Staley said.

There wasn’t one reason South Carolina’s quest to become a repeat champion stopped short. Not in a 23-point loss whose scoreline somehow makes the 2025 title game seem closer than it was.

For 40 minutes, Staley had watched a better team fulfill its potential of being the best team in the nation. She saw Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong mesh to perfection for the Huskies in the season’s most important game. By the time the title game’s margin ballooned to 32 midway through the fourth quarter, Staley had tried seemingly every lineup combination she and her staff could think up. No matter who South Carolina cycled through, the results barely changed. It was then that she took her accomplished seniors out.

A year after completing the first undefeated season in school history, the Gamecocks’ imperfect season came to an imperfect end. The Huskies delivered the final, and most lasting, blow.

South Carolina sought to become the first repeat champions since 2016, and win Staley a third title in four years in the process. Staley sought to maintain personal perfection, too, after winning titles as a coach in her first three national championship appearances.

FINAL | USC 59, UCONN 82

Thank you for your support all season long FAMS. pic.twitter.com/sk1cDXSByc

— South Carolina Women’s Basketball (@GamecockWBB) April 6, 2025

Sunday’s loss does little to diminish that history. Losing just four games in 2024-25, the Gamecocks remain a giant in the sport, and a program that is achieving unmatched success in a period of burgeoning parity around women’s college basketball. Yet, South Carolina’s loss to UConn revealed plenty of imperfections. Before the final buzzer sounded, Staley had already begun thinking of how they would proceed.

“You start thinking about in real-time what we need if (we’re) put in this situation again to be better and to have a different outcome,” she said.

Despite last season’s success, the Gamecocks didn’t focus on completing a perfect season. From the outset of summer workouts, South Carolina coaches didn’t bring up winning streaks. They instead zeroed in on building productive habits. Staley would often ask her coaches what those non-negotiables would be. The Gamecocks sought to play together, play hard, rebound, dictate on defense and remain hungry. Against almost every opponent, they did just that.

But the Huskies proved a challenge too grand for South Carolina. Not once, but twice.

UConn beat the Gamecocks by 29 points in mid-February in Columbia, S.C. The defeat snapped the Gamecocks’ 71-game home winning streak, and it was one of the worst losses in Staley’s tenure. Redshirt junior guard Raven Johnson put it plainly: “That loss was very embarrassing.”

South Carolina returned to practice after being given an off-day, and on that Tuesday, veteran players took accountability for their performance. Senior guard Te-Hina Paopao apologized to her teammates in a film session before they took the practice court. Assistant Jolette Law said they faced a choice that week: “Are we laying on the mat or are we gonna get up?”

The answer was the latter, and South Carolina didn’t lose again until their rematch against the Huskies in Tampa.

But for all of their growth over the last six weeks, their season still ended with a whimper.

The Gamecocks were out-rebounded, outscored in the paint and allowed more points off turnovers than they scored. Staley sat on the bench for much of the second half, watching the blowout in front of her. And no matter how many times she expressed frustration or clapped in an attempt to urge her players on, little changed.

Unlike South Carolina’s past elite teams, no one player starred on this season’s roster. Staley’s championship team in 2017 was led by A’ja Wilson. Aliyah Boston was the center of the Gamecocks’ 2022 championship roster, and Kamilla Cardoso was the fulcrum of last year’s group. This iteration didn’t have a heliocentric design.

That construction proved to be a blessing — the unpredictability made game-planning against the Gamecocks difficult — and a curse.

Between the third and fourth quarters, as South Carolina trailed the Huskies by 20, Staley was asked in a TV interview about who would score for them in the ensuing period. “I don’t know,” she responded.

Don’t ever think I have seen Dawn Staley swear on national television 📺 pic.twitter.com/roSwCvWmiw

— Jeannie (@jeanniebrichett) April 6, 2025

Sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley played just three minutes in the first quarter and seven in the first half. Freshman star Joyce Edwards logged only eight first-half minutes and had three turnovers and five points before the break. With no clear answer of who to turn to, the Gamecocks didn’t have a double-digit scorer until the fourth quarter.

Staley knows her roster will go through changes. All teams inevitably do. Seniors Bree Hall, Sania Feagin and Paopao won’t be back. Johnson could elect to turn pro, too.

“We need some experienced players that can come in and contribute right away and bring some leadership to a core group of young players that are pretty talented,” Staley said.

Announcements could come soon. Staley acknowledged that “there’s some things in the works,” though she didn’t specify who or what that would be.

Perhaps Staley will find a star who the Gamecocks can guarantee will generate offense when called upon. But she also values the importance of maintaining the altruistic culture they have built.

“That entire class is the epitome of sacrifice,” Staley said about her seniors. “They’ve sacrificed and learned while sitting or playing minimal minutes.”

That’s a rarity in this era, in which the transfer portal is running rampant during the NCAA Tournament.

Staley will face a balancing act again going forward, with two top-25 recruits entering the program next fall. But she has learned to manage different locker rooms and different season-long journeys since she took the South Carolina job in 2008. This one featured three regular-season losses, an uncharacteristic lack of crispness in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight and an eventual title blowout loss.

In the locker room afterward, Staley encouraged players to feel the emotions of defeat, but also to hold their heads up. She, of course, also thanked her seniors. And just after 6 p.m., with the Huskies still celebrating on the Amalie Arena court, the Gamecocks began filing out of the stadium.

Some players were still in uniform. The sun was still shining as Staley made her way toward the team bus.

“We tried to throw a lot at (UConn), and they rose above it,” Staley said. “They rose above it all.”

South Carolina has been on the other side of that. They know how winning feels. On Sunday, they were reminded of how title game losses feel, too.

(Photo: C. Morgan Engel / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

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