In the grand scheme of college basketball, Dawn Staley’s team is young. It’s inexperienced. By her own admission, they lose focus at times.
The term “Dawn’s Daycare” took on a life of its own last season.
But in the biggest game of the 2024-25 season to date, a home showdown against the No. 5 Texas Longhorns, South Carolina locked in and annihilated its biggest SEC challenger 67-50 in a statement performance.
“They were focused today" Staley said. "They wanted to win, and they didn’t let their foot off the gas no matter what was happening on the floor. We had some bad decisions and turnovers, but we turned the page. We haven’t been a team that turned the page, we’ve been a team that complained here or there and did not get back on defense.
“It was beautiful just for them to play that way.”
South Carolina (16-1, 4-0 SEC) did not score its most lopsided win of the season on Sunday. If the Gamecocks continue playing like this, a Jan. 12 victory will be far from the most important. Not the most dramatic or most overwhelming either, but it was ruthless from the start in a way only a truly elite team can focus itself and make an opponent uncomfortable.
And make no mistake about it, the Longhorns were uncomfortable right from the jump.
“They’re [South Carolina] very tough,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “And it’s not just the physical component, it’s the mental component. I thought we were really mentally weak today.”
South Carolina beat Texas (16-2, 3-1 SEC) into submission by taking its best player completely out of the game, a tall task Bree Hall in particular excelled at.
The senior guard approached the challenge of Texas ace Madison Booker head on, and held her to 3-of-19 shooting and just seven points. A couple others — Chloe Kitts, Tessa Johnson — took turns guarding Booker while Hall took her rests, but for the most part this was a one-on-one battle titled decisively in South Carolina’s favor.
“I’ll be completely honest, I was watching a lot of her games last night just on YouTube,” Hall said. “Watching, studying what she does. And I think also my teammates and my coaches have really put in a lot of confidence into me, trusting myself, and I made sure I trusted my help.”
Sania Feagin battled, bumped and fought her way through a physical Texas frontcourt in a tightly officiated game. Someone had to do the dirty work down low with Ashlyn Watkins unavailable, and Feagin was in the trenches at every opportunity.
Her stat line was impressive on its own. Eight points, nine rebounds, a career-high six blocks for the senior forward. But every single action off the ball, every hard screen, tight-checking box out and quick switch defensively took a toll on a Texas offense which finished 15 points below its next-lowest scoring output of the year.
“When you have someone who has sat for as long as she has sat and is playing as well as she played, that was it,” Staley said “That’s what we’ve been trying to get from Feagin for three years now.”
The tougher, deeper team won the fight. That much is usually the case. But what has not always been the case for these Gamecocks was the focus, the tunnel vision to seek out an opponent and bury it.
And this type of game started with the seniors. Hall and Feagin, along with Te-Hina Paopao’s 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Nobody was coming into Colonial Life Arena today and beating this version of South Carolina, not even a Texas team with its own National Championship aspirations.
“It’s a collection of our seniors, the ones who have been here a long time,” Staley said. “And they know.”
On the best day of the season so far, everything started at the top.
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