COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball put the W in yeehaw and beat No. 6 Texas 67-50 on Sunday, picking up its fifth ranked win of the season.
The Gamecocks (16-1, 4-0 in SEC) were up 18-9 after one quarter, but were losing the battle on the boards 17-9. After getting dominated on the glass by the Longhorns to start, (15-2, 3-1), South Carolina rallied to grab 42 rebounds compared to 40 for Texas.
“Fortunately for us, that toughness and that willingness to play through it really helped us but giving up 20 offensive rebounds will kill you any other night besides today,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said.
Junior guard Raven Johnson had a team-high 10 rebounds, Sania Feagin had nine boards to go with six blocks.
“Thought South Carolina was much tougher, much more aggressive and much more disciplined,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “They were who I thought they were, I’ve been here enough … their team’s are always very tough, their competitive spirit just oozes in the arena … toughness isn’t just physical, it’s the mental piece … when I think of South Carolina I always think of their defense … that’s a credit to Dawn and her staff.”
Texas took care of the ball better than South Carolina, as the Gamecocks finished with 22 turnovers to the Longhorns’ 12. The Longhorns had more steals (10-5), 16 points off turnovers (to South Carolina’s eight) and had more second chance and bench points.
“We didn’t win the rebounding battle but everything below that, the extra effort,” Staley said. “We really concentrated on them having no direct passes in their post, in the times that we did play behind them, something bad happened. We’ll clean that part of it up but I’m just really proud of them because they are playing together, they’re playing for Ashlyn (Watkins), they’re playing to make sure that people don’t look at us as non-contenders.”
INSTANT: South Carolina women’s basketball vs Texas final score: Te-Hina Paopao leads Gamecocks to top-10 win
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Texas’ Vic Schaefer praises South Carolina’s defense after loss to Dawn Staley
