Dawn Dishes On How South Carolina Overcame Early Game Woes Vs. Tennessee Volunteers

South Carolina's women's basketball team had to overcome some obstacles against Tennessee, and Dawn Staley explained how they did so in her postgame presser.

The South Carolina Gamecocks moved to 24-0 on Thursday night, but the win didn't come easy. At the end of the first three quarters of tonight's bout against the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Dawn Staley's squad found themselves up one point, down three points, and tied at each respective juncture.

While we've seen the Gamecocks in some hotly-contested battles this season, this one was particularly frustrating for Staley and her staff because the team's biggest problem was arguably the lack of hustle plays made early in the contest, allowing the Volunteers to establish momentum.

"I thought Tennessee did a great job at getting offensive rebounds and giving [themselves] extra opportunities to score on us," Dawn explained in her postgame press conference. "It's just they didn't capitalize on them in a way that they probably could have because they beat us to every loose ball. They were just really out scrapping us."

Raven Johnson chasing after a loose ball (15th Feb., 2024) / Saul Young | The Knoxville News-Sentinel

Every team, even South Carolina, has games where they don't come out on the floor and play their A-game and have to figure out a way to right the ship. As the game called for one team to answer the moment, the Gamecocks were the team that answered at the end, and there were two big reasons for this: winning more effort plays and getting the ball in the hands of their best offensive option.

"You have to make some adjustments. Sometimes, our players really don't get what's happening out there, and they need a break in the play to figure it out. We thought we did a great job just rebounding the ball; got better. Beating them to the ball and then being intentional and getting Kamilla [Cardoso] the ball where I thought we could capitalize on her being able to score in the paint."

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