Dawn Staley explains why Chloe Kitts, Joyce Edwards sat in 4th in South Carolina basketball’s loss

AUSTIN, Texas — South Carolina women’s basketball dropped a regular-season SEC game for the first time since Dec. 30, 2021.

The No. 2 Gamecocks (22-2, 10-1) picked up their first conference loss of the season after falling 66-62 to No. 6 Texas in the Moody Center in Austin.

For the entire fourth quarter, which began tied 49-49, forwards Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards didn’t see the floor. Coach Dawn Staley was asked about that specific decision, which put the final 10 minutes in Sania Feagin’s hands as a forward.

“Sania is the only one that can guard her,” Staley said of 6-foot-6 Texas forward Kyla Oldacre who had 13 points. “Like halfway, we give up too much when Chloe or Joyce are on her. We could have tried Adhel (Tac) but they’re just not experienced enough. She’s a very experienced post player. I thought she brought it all home for them.”

Texas coach Vic Schaefer stayed with Oldacre for the whole fourth quarter, which paid off as she had eight points in the final 10 minutes.

“They used Oldacre to finish us and she did a great job,” Staley said. “Crucial baskets.”

Without Kitts and Edwards in the lineup, South Carolina went small with four guards and Feagin. Senior guard Bree Hall was tasked with guarding star Madison Booker, who finished with 20 points.

The Longhorns (24-2, 10-1) used their height advantage and created baskets simply by passing over South Carolina defenders. With Hall glued to Booker, there wasn’t a lot of room to double-team when Texas forwards caught the ball in the paint.

“We needed (Hall) on Booker for as much as we could stay matched up on her,” Staley said. “So we thought we need to go to a small lineup . . . we weren’t getting anything from our bigs. We weren’t getting a whole lot of rebounding, a lot of scoring where we felt like we can get the advantage. They did a really good job at covering up, being disruptive and forcing us out of our spots.”

South Carolina’s guards finished with a combined 37 points; forwards Kitts, Edwards, Feagin, Tac and Maryam Dauda combined for 25. Edwards and Kitts each scored nine.

The Longhorns won the rebounding battle 42-35 and had 15 offensive rebounds to create 19 second-chance points.