Dawn Staley divulges how Hailey Van Lith’s TCU is different from Lauren Betts’ UCLA: “You gotta make them work”

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley considers No. 9-ranked TCU a different challenge from No. 1 UCLA despite having a similar 6-foot-7 center manning the paint.

Staley made the statement during the No.3-ranked Gamecocks' practice session on Friday in preparation for their game against the Horned Frogs on Sunday.

The three-time champion college basketball coach disclosed that she'd likely deploy zone defense on TCU to minimize the damage superstars Sedona Prince and Hailey Van Lith could inflict.

"Probably play some zone (defense). I mean there's the big you got to chop bigs down you got to make them work for every catch every touch," Dawn Staley said (2:00)

The 6-foot-7 Prince averages a double-double - 19.4 points and 10.8 rebounds in nine games this season. She's also the league leader in blocks with an average of 4.3 rejections per outing.

Meanwhile, Van Lith is proving that her transfer from LSU was the best decision, as she continues to put up good numbers for the Horned Frogs this season. The fifth-year senior is averaging 19.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.8 steals per contest, including double-doubles against New Orleans and NC State.

Aside from Prince and Van Lith, Madison Conner has also provided a big lift for TCU, averaging 15.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game. She has made 42.7% of her shots from the field, including 43.8% from the 3-point line this season.

South Carolina absorbed its first defeat of the season, falling 77-62 to UCLA on Nov. 24. Six-foot-seven Lauren Betts proved to be a headache for the Gamecocks, finishing with 11 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

Aside from Betts, Londynn Jones (15), Elina Aarnisalo (13), Gabriela Jaquez (11) and Kiki Rice (11) also finished in double figures to outclass South Carolina.

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Dawn Staley expects an offense-minded Hailey Van Lith in Sunday's game

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley is expecting the Hailey Van Lith she saw in Louisville where she was more of an offense-minded guard.

Dawn Staley played against Van Lith when she was with the Cardinals and last year when she was with LSU. The multi-titled coach expects Van Lith to be the player who averaged 15.4 points in 101 games for Louisville.

"She's more like in her years in Louisville. She's in that mode to where you know she's calling on to do a lot of things for their basketball team. So you got to go back and look at her Louisville tapes and see the types of things that we did to have an impact on her inability to to get clean looks," Staley said (1:10).

The veteran South Carolina coach considers her team a work in progress and will need to be locked in at some crucial games, which may affect their ranking moving forward.

The Gamecocks-Horned Frogs game is scheduled on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth Texas. It will be the third away game for the defending champions, who are 1-1 away from their homecourt.