GREENVILLE − After South Carolina women’s basketball won the SEC Tournament championship Sunday, coach Dawn Staley wanted to make sure everyone knew Flau’jae Johnson apologized to her for the fight that broke out.
The LSU guard sparked an altercation that cleared the benches with two minutes left.
After Gamecocks guard MiLaysia Fulwiley stole the ball from Johnson, she fouled Fulwiley before shoving South Carolina forward Ashlyn Watkins, who ran up to her yelling after the play.
After the top-seeded Gamecocks (32-0) held off the second-seeded Tigers (28-5) by a score of 79-72, Johnson came up to Staley immediately afterwards.
“She just apologized and said she’s not that type of player,” Staley said. “And I really appreciate that, just something that somebody won’t ever hear if I didn’t say anything. And she’s not, she’s a really good person. Things just got escalated. I’ll take responsibility for what happened from our side of it.”
When Gamecocks center Kamilla Cardoso saw Johnson put her hands on Watkins, she went over and shoved Johnson to the ground. The benches cleared after that, and Johnson’s brother ran onto the court, according to the broadcast. He was escorted off the court by a police officer.
Cardoso was ejected for physical fighting and Johnson was issued an intentional foul. The benches were also ejected for leaving the bench area, leaving six players for South Carolina and five for LSU.
Cardoso issued a public apology after the game on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We talk about these things as a team, and we try to, as much as possible, express to them how not to react in those type of situations,” Staley said. “But real time is real time, and I know that anybody, Kamilla, as well as the other four or five players that were ejected, I know if they had a chance to do it all over again, they would do it differently.”
Staley said Cardoso understands the gravity of the situation, and that she let her emotions get the best of her – and she knows she has to handle them better.
“She’s got to be better, she’s that important to our team, that important to the state of women’s basketball – Kamilla’s a star,” Staley said. “And we just really can’t have her in a position where she’s in the locker room for anything other than halftime and the end of basketball games.”
Staley said she didn’t want people tuning into women’s basketball to see the fight and think it represents the game.
“Our game is a really beautiful thing, and to be quite honest, this is a part of it now,” Staley said. “So we have to fix it, and we have to move on.”
The fight was another example to Staley of the difference between last season’s team – which had the iconic “Freshies” class – and this season’s team. The fight would have “never happened last year,” Staley said.
“They would have been so political about it if that would have happened, and Aliyah (Boston) would have probably just been the referee,” Staley said. “And then you got this team that – they’re protectors. So yes, it’s a bittersweet – you want them to protect their sisters. At the same time, you want them to do it in a way in which you don’t get penalized.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Flau’jae Johnson apologizes to Dawn Staley after LSU-South Carolina fight
