"That's what gutted us": Dawn Staley downplays Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong's role while explaining why South Carolina lost to UConn

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley downplayed the excellent efforts of UConn stars Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong. Staley cited her team's inability to hold the Huskies' transition offense and rebounding as the main reason for their 87-58 defeat on Sunday.

The three-time champion coach made the admission on Wednesday during the Gamecocks' media availability session in preparation for their next game against Arkansas.

Dawn Staley was direct to the point that South Carolina's poor transition defense against UConn was the reason for its downfall.

"I'm going to say this it was our transition defense that killed us," Staley said (3:33). "It was from taking bad shots, and it created an imbalance on the defensive side."

After getting the rebounds from South Carolina's missed shots, UConn ran to their court immediately, giving the Huskies a 31-12 advantage in fast break points.

The Gamecocks bench tactician also lamented her team's weak rebounding effort. UConn outrebounded South Carolina 48-29, including 15-6 from the offensive side.

"It's all transition and the easy buckets. It was the rebounding. That's what gutted us. transition defense and rebounding," Staley said (4:18 onwards)

Dawn Staley downplayed the double-double efforts of UConn stars Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong, describing their efforts as decent. Bueckers finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and one steal, while Strong added 16 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block.

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Dawn Staley gives props to UConn shooters for making it hard for South Carolina's defense to recover

Dawn Staley appreciated the efforts of UConn's shooters Azzi Fudd, Kaitlyn Chen and Ashlynn Shade for making it difficult for South Carolina to recover from a poor first half. Fudd, Chen and Shade combined for 47 points and 10-for-20 from 3-pointers. Fudd led UConn's offense with 28 points, spiced up with six threes.

They helped Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong make mincemeat of South Carolina's vaunted defense, which had allowed 56.1 points per game before Sunday's 29-point demolition at the Colonial Life Arena.

"It was pretty much everybody else that really killed us. It was a lot of it," Staley said. (4:06)

South Carolina (23-3, 10-1) will look to gain lost ground on Thursday when it faces Arkansas (9-18, 2-10) at home. The Razorbacks are tied for the last place in the SEC standings along with Missouri and Georgia but it has an explosive scorer in Izzy Higginbottom.

Higginbottom ranks fifth in the nation in points, averaging 24.1 ppg and shoots an excellent 90.4% from the free-throw line. South Carolina needs to defend the explosive 5-foot-6 guard without fouling, as she averages 8.1 free throw attempts per contest.

Arkansas has played without second-leading scorer Kiki Smith for five straight games since losing to Kentucky on Jan. 26. Smith was sidelined due to an ankle injury sustained during practice.