South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley sounded off at the officiating midway through the Gamecocks 66-62 Sunday night defeat to the Texas Longhorns.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley outlined her frustration at the officials prior to the second quarter of the Gamecocks 66-62 defeat to the Texas Longhorns.

Heading into the contest, South Carolina was ranked No.2 in the country, while Texas was ranked No.4. The closely contested affair, a potential preview of a postseason clash come the spring, eventually saw the Gamecocks fall 66-62, in what was only their second defeat of the 2024-25 NCAA women’s college basketball season.

However, during the opening quarter, Staley and her team were left frustrated by several calls given against them by the officials. In total, there were 16 combined fouls dished out by officials between the Gamecocks and Texas, nine of which went against South Carolina.

Clearly annoyed by the officiating, Staley gave an in-game interview to ESPN before the second quarter, outlining the fans in the stands and the viewers at home were there to see the players play – and not the officials officiate.

“People are here to see the players play,” Staley told ESPN. “I know I can speak for Vic [Schaefer, Texas coach] in this, either our team or their team, let the players play. The (TV) viewership and people want to see the players make the plays that make the game.”

Staley then went on to add she would continue to tell her team to play in the manner they had during the first quarter, adding: “So I’ll just say that. I’m going to continue talking to my players that we are not going to adjust, K? Because this is how we play.”

In the end, the Gamecocks fell short on the road, falling to the Longhorns. Heading into the fourth quarter, the game sat tied at 49-49. However, Texas outscored South Carolina 17-13 in the fourth to defeat the Gamecocks.

Speaking after the defeat, which was South Carolina’s first in 57 SEC regular season games, Staley said: “It’s unfamiliar territory for us. This is first game that we’ve lost in two years, I think. The law of averages says at some point, somebody’s gonna get you.”

She added: “We fought in this particular game. There are some things that we definitely can get better at. This type of game, you’re just trying to survive. You can’t really run your offenses. And players have to make plays at that point because you can design the play up, but they can blow it up with their defense, and they did that a lot tonight.

“They disrupted us. We worked on some things that we could do to relieve the pressure, but it didn’t work. It’s a lot easier when you’re practicing and you’re not in this environment. It’s loud, and you can’t hear what the play call is, and you’ve got to improvise a little bit. I thought they did a better job improvising and running their sets. We couldn’t disrupt them as much as we disrupted them at our place. They returned the favor.”