Everything Dawn Staley said following the Wofford game

South Carolina women’s basketball defeated Wofford, 93-47, on Sunday. Following the game, Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley spoke with the media. Here’s everything she had to say.

Question: In the first quarter, you guys were a little shaky. But then you guys pulled away in the second. What did you tell the team at that first quarter break?

Staley: People are going to play their very best against us. They get an extra burst of energy. Wofford, they just play that way. They just, that’s their norm. We’ve gotten off to some not-so-appealing starts. And, hopefully, that isn’t indicative of how we’re going to continue. A little bit of rust, a little bit of Wofford just taking it to us.

[Get the GamecocksW newsletter]

So the team shot kind of poorly from three, but you guys dominated in the paint. When it comes to one thing not working and the other one is working like the paint was the big player today, do you want the team to sort of stick to what’s working? Or do you want the team to, in the future, kind of try not to stray away from your guys’ identity?

I like for us to take good shots. So when we don’t take good shots, more than likely, they’re not going in. When we take too many bad shots, it leads to stagnant offense. It leads to us just not having balance and transition.

I want a balance. I want to be able to shoot the three, because we’re very capable of doing that. And I want us to dominate the paint, because we’re very capable of doing that. And I think we’re very capable of doing everything in between.

It’s just us being disciplined to being very – just calculating from an offensive standpoint. That’s what gets us in trouble, and we got to find a way to fix that.

[Join GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days]

Maddy (McDaniel) and Sakima (Walker), what can you tell us about them, when you might expect them back?

I don’t know. That’s a medical trainer, doctor call. For me, they just let me know how many we have eligible and healthy and ready to go.

What changes as we move into SEC play now? Mindset, practice?

As a team and a program, we’re creatures of habit. We got to get into the habits that work for us. We got to play to the standard of our standard. We got to play to who we are. We can’t play less than who we are. We can’t play according to how our opponents are playing us.

And we’re a work in progress when it comes to that. I think we can identify what that is. Doesn’t mean we’re going to play perfectly. Just means that we’re going to have to identify it, get back on track, and try to hold, serve, and play to our standard as much as possible.

[Get USC Gamecocks app notifications]

How much of a benefit is it to have Ashlyn (Watkins)? I believe four blocks, but she disrupted a lot more shots than that. Just how much does that help to have that dominant presence in the paint?

It’s really important. Ashlyn is a shot blocker. She’s able to cover ground and help and recover. She also can get out of position in being a shot blocker, but we know that. So she helps us out. The people that she’s helping out, it’s got to help her out when she’s out of position to get back to her player.

And that is the balance that we have to strike because we know that she’s going to probably go after every shot. And she does a great job at blocking shots. She does a great job at deterring shots. She does a great job at deflecting. So I think she’s got more in her tank to give us a little bit more of that.

Discuss South Carolina women’s basketball on The Insiders Forum!