Dawn Staley stood before the cameras, voice cracking, eyes glistening with the weight of a thousand unspoken battles.
“These back-to-back wars… they tore something out of us,” she whispered, pressing a hand to her chest as if to hold her heart in place. “We’ve been untouchable for so long… and tonight, tomorrow, they made us bleed for every single point.
I’m proud, I’m exhausted, I’m terrified… because now I remember how fragile all of this really is.”
A single tear slipped as she looked away, the invincible coach suddenly human, raw, shaken to her core by the brutal reminder that even empires can tremble
LOUISVILLE, KY — South Carolina women’s basketball isn’t really used to close games, as its scoring margin this season is 36.1, the eighth best in the country. Last year, it was 21.1.
But coach Dawn Staley found her team in a second-straight down-to-the-wire game before the No. 3 Gamecocks held off Louisville 79-77 on Dec. 4. South Carolina avoided consecutive losses for the first time since 2019.
“I learned that we do have some resiliency to see it through,” Staley said.
The last time South Carolina’s had back-to-back regular season games decided by four points or less points was when it won by four on Dec. 21, 2021, then lost by one on Dec. 30.
The last time one of Staley’s teams has had a single-digit scoring margin was also 2018-19 (8.5), with all other seasons since then finishing with a difference of 17 or more.
This team is finding its identity with four new starters but even the returning core hasn’t been in many consecutive close games. Last March Madness, South Carolina beat Maryland by four then Duke by four but the entire regular season, had only three games within single digits, all in different months.
“That we can do it in close games,” junior guard Tessa Johnson said when asked what she learned about her team vs Louisville. “I think this was a good game for us … after the game I saw text messages saying it looks like we’re learning each other more and that’s what we’re feeling out there too.”
South Carolina’s 66-64 loss to Texas Nov. 27 was the first glimpse of this new team’s execution in crunch time. Missed free throws and layups played a huge role in the Gamecocks’ inability to close out the game.
The No. 21 Cardinals (8-3) had all the momentum going into the fourth quarter after South Carolina’s Raven Johnson turned the ball over for a layup on the other end. A nearly three-minute long scoring drought made it 73-68 Louisville with under five minutes to play, the second time since the Elite Eight win Staley’s team was losing in the final quarter.
Johnson hit two free throws and had two assists in the final three minutes before scoring a layup to go up three with 30 seconds to play. She had 11 points, four rebounds and eight assists.
Madina Okot led South Carolina with 23 points. Tessa Johnson scored 20 points, including four 3-pointers.
South Carolina held Louisville to four points after Staley called a timeout with 4:11 to play.
“I think they rose to the challenge of playing in the SEC/ACC in front of their crowd, it was a great atmosphere and they played to that,” Staley said of the Cardinals. “It was good to be in this atmosphere and actually win the basketball game.”
