'We got whupped': How South Carolina will respond to UCLA loss, reload next season
· Yahoo Sports
PHOENIX — While wearing her South Carolina uniform for the final time on Sunday in the bowels of the Mortgage Matchup Center, senior point guard Raven Johnson had a simple message for the younger Gamecocks: Remember this. Use this.
“I hope they felt how we got whupped. We didn’t get beat, we got whupped,” Johnson said after South Carolina was routed by UCLA in the national championship game. “And I hope it hurts them. I hope they have a big summer and get in the gym and work on their game, because it’s not going to be easy next year either.”
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Whatever South Carolina needed on Sunday to beat UCLA, the Gamecocks just didn’t have it.
The Bruins had Lauren Betts dominating in the paint, Gabriela Jaquez fighting for every loose ball and stuffing the stat sheet, and Gianna Kneepkens swishing a few timely 3-pointers. South Carolina didn’t have an answer for anything UCLA was throwing at it.
UCLA won its first national championship in women’s basketball in the NCAA era, defeating the Gamecocks 79-51 in front of a sold-out crowd Sunday, April 5 at the Mortgage Matchup Center. It's the second consecutive season that Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team has lost by 25 or more points in the title game.
“We came out flat. UCLA was on the same page,” South Carolina freshman Agot Makeer said. “That game was a blowout, so that’s tough to have in a championship game.”
In the biggest game of the year, the Gamecocks shot a season-worst 29% from the floor, made just two 3-pointers, coughed up 14 turnovers and were outrebounded by 12. Joyce Edwards was held to single-digit scoring for just the third time this season, and Johnson and Ta’Niya Latson combined for just seven points.
“Today was just not our day,” South Carolina senior forward Maryam Dauda said. “I felt like UCLA came out from the jump and just kept punching and punching away. We just couldn’t recover and fell deeper and deeper into the hole.”
UCLA, from start to finish and in every facet of the game, was better than South Carolina on Sunday, dashing the Gamecocks’ hopes of winning a fourth national championship.
But this is not the end of South Carolina’s dominance in women’s basketball. As long as Staley is roaming the sidelines in outfits that cost more than a luxury sedan, the Gamecocks will continue to be elite in this sport. They’ll keep getting talented recruits, they’ll attract some of the best transfers in the country again, and they’ll be exceptional on both ends of the floor.
In Columbia, South Carolina, the future remains bright. They will continue to be one of the sport’s Goliaths. One loss won’t change that.
Assuming none of these players transfer – and key contributors for Staley rarely do, save for MiLaysia Fulwiley – South Carolina is set to bring back a pair of starters in Tessa Johnson and Edwards, who have now played in multiple national championship games. Johnson played the best of any Gamecock on Sunday, scoring 14 points. As a freshman, she was arguably the MVP of their 2024 national championship when she had 19 points and four rebounds off the bench to power the Gamecocks over Iowa.
What’s more, South Carolina is about to get back two of the other stars from that undefeated season: former SEC Tournament MVP Chloe Kitts and super athletic forward Ashlyn Watkins, who were both sidelined this season with injuries.
“I think our front line is pretty good, especially the ones that are coming back from injury,” Staley said. “Obviously, we got to add some guard play, definitely some lead guard play, some more athleticism in the guard department.”
Alicia Tournebize, the 6-foot-7 center from France, will go through her first offseason with South Carolina’s strength and conditioning program, too. While the Gamecocks had to rely on their guard play this past season, Staley will be able to revert back to having a team with depth, talent and strength in the post.
And as a potential bonus, South Carolina is still attempting to secure another year of eligibility for starting center Madina Okot. The 6-foot-6 native of Kenya averaged 13.1 points and 10.8 rebounds per game this season in her first year with the Gamecocks and just second year of college basketball.
“I'm hoping to hear back shortly. I think our compliance is doing a great job. It's just keeping the lines of communication open,” Staley said this weekend. “Hopefully they'll have an answer soon. We're talking about Madina returning for a fifth year.”
South Carolina is also due to bring back Agot Makeer, whose role increased in the NCAA Tournament. The freshman scored 14 points in the Gamecocks' semifinal win over UConn and had 11 against UCLA. The nation’s fifth-best recruit, Sierra Canyon product Jerzy Robinson, is also set to join the Gamecocks. She was sitting courtside on Sunday wearing a shirt that said, “Who can guard Tessa?”
After taking down previously undefeated UConn in the Final Four, Staley talked about how she’s still haunted by how the 2023 season ended, when her Gamecocks were upset in the national semifinals in Dallas by Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes. South Carolina responded the next season by going 38-0 and winning the national title.
Staley said that one still hurts to think about because South Carolina wasn’t able to finish off the careers of Aliyah Boston and “the Freshies” with a national championship. This one will certainly sting too, as Raven Johnson’s decorated career didn’t end on a high note, and Ta’Niya Latson didn’t enjoy the ultimate satisfaction for the statistical sacrifices she made by leaving her star scoring role at Florida State to be part of something greater with the Gamecocks.
Will South Carolina use this defeat as fuel next season the same way they did after losing to Iowa?
“To get here is hard. To win here is harder, right? We just have to keep getting here and make adjustments when we don't win,” Staley said. “Obviously we got smacked today. We got to figure out how we smack back and put ourselves in the position where we're hoisting the trophy at the end of the day.”
It would be unwise to bet against Staley and the Gamecocks doing anything less than returning to the Final Four for the seventh consecutive time in Columbus, Ohio next season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina will remain top team in 2026-27 despite loss to UCLA