Dawn Staley claps back at Brenda Frese's 'blueprint' comments ahead of Elite Eight showdown

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley's No. 1-seeded Gamecocks prevailed 71-67 against the No. 4-seeded Maryland Terrapins on Friday evening in their Sweet 16 clash. The Terrapins held the lead at halftime, and during the fourth quarter, the lead changed hands several times. However, Gamecocks star MiLaysia Fulwiley ensured that a famous upset was avoided with her stellar offensive performance.

After the game, Maryland coach Brenda Frese made a telling comment about how the Terrapins had approached the game against the reigning national champions during her postgame news conference.

"We showed that we could win this game, and I think we gave a pretty good blueprint on how to beat South Carolina, to be quite honest, for the teams moving forward," Frese said.

During her postgame news conference, the charismatic Dawn Staley clapped back at Frese's comments while defending her team's prospects in the future.

"People have played us like that since we had Aliyah Boston," Staley said. "They did a good job executing their game plan, and we did a poor job of shot selection. We'll be better. We've just got to take better shots."

Coming off the bench, South Carolina star MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 23 points against Maryland in the Birmingham Region 2 semifinal. Chloe Kitts added 15 points and 11 rebounds in the win. For the Terrapins, Kaylene Smikle had 17 points, while Allie Kubek and Sarah Te-Biasu both added 12 points.

Dawn Staley appreciates team's ugly win

The South Carolina Gamecocks were written off in several quarters during the season after losing several stalwarts, including Kamilla Cardoso to the WNBA and Ashlyn Watkins to a season-ending injury. However, they responded by winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament and bagging an NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed.

The Gamecocks have lost three games this season after going unbeaten last season and have trailed at halftime in two of their previous two March Madness games against the Indiana Hoosiers and Maryland Terrapins. During her postgame news conference after the win against the Terps, Dawn Staley instead hailed the Gamecocks' resilience in the tough win as they continue to inch closer to glory.

"Is it ugly? Yes. Are people going to say this doesn't look like a national championship team?" Staley said. "Well, we didn't look like one last year to most in the beginning of the season. Probably didn't look like one. We looked like one in '22. [In 2017] we didn't look like one.

"I think we're back to where we don't look like one, and hopefully we can win it and even it out. I think the biggest thing in winning the championship and then coming back is the players seem to forget how hard it was."

Next up for Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks in their bid to repeat as national champions is a clash against the No. 2-seeded Duke Blue Devils on Sunday evening.