Dawn Staley shares how South Carolina has responded since loss

South Carolina had its run of 43 straight wins come to an end this past Sunday as Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks suffered a 77-62 loss at UCLA.

Staley said after the loss and ahead of the matchup with Iowa State on Thursday that she thought her team would respond the right way. Needless to say the Gamecocks did against Iowa State, pounding the Cyclones 76-36 on Thanksgiving Day.

“That’s what a team does. This is a resilient group,” Dawn Staley said. “This is a team that obviously hasn’t dealt with a whole lot of losing. It’ll shake you for a moment.

“We’ve got a 24-hour rule. Bask in the glory of a defeat and you handle a defeat. And you handle it with grace, but you handle it with learning lessons. Things were exposed and hopefully we can fill some of those holes and get back to happier times.”

It was certainly a happier time for South Carolina on Thursday. The Gamecocks led Iowa State 19-3 at the end of the first quarter and 35-9 at halftime.

South Carolina went on a 32-0 run at one point in the first half and easily handled an Iowa State team that was ranked No. 15 nationally.

Dawn Staley said ahead of the game that she wanted her team to play better offensively and it did. South Carolina shot 45.3 percent from the floor against Iowa State after connecting on only 36.4 percent of its attempts against UCLA.

“Our offense, just getting better looks and getting better ball movement,” Dawn Staley said of where South Carolina needed to improve. “The ball has been sticking too much to individual players and it’s stagnant.

“We need to get our bigs involved, so we’re going to look to get them involved in positions they can score, whether that’s two feet in the paint or hitting mid-range shots. If you’ve got 3-point range, you can take good, fluid, rhythm 3s.”

South Carolina relied on a balanced scoring attack against Iowa State as senior forward Sania Feagin and freshman forward Joyce Edwards led the way with 13 points each.

The Gamecocks will be back in action on Saturday when they face Purdue in Fort Meyers, Florida. Tip off is set for 11 a.m.