No. 1 South Carolina experiences rare sting of defeat, seeing 43-game winning streak end

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Top-ranked South Carolina felt something it hasn’t known in over 2 1/2 years.

The sting of defeat after being thoroughly dominated in a 77-62 loss to No. 5 UCLA on Sunday.

Gone was the overall 43-game winning streak. Done was the run of 33 consecutive road victories. And the No. 1 ranking it’s held for 23 consecutive polls will disappear Monday.

“This is what we usually do to teams,” coach Dawn Staley said. “We were on the receiving end of it.”

South Carolina hadn’t lost since April 2023, when Caitlin Clark and Iowa beat the Gamecocks in the national semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins (5-0) shot 47% from the floor and 3-point range, hit 11 of 14 free throws and had five players in double figures.

“They actually executed our game plan to a T,” Staley said.

The Gamecocks (5-1) were held to 36% shooting, had just two players in double figures and neither was leading scorer Chloe Kitts, who was held to 2 points on 1 of 7 shooting.

They never led, got beat on the boards, 41-34, and were outscored 26-18 in the paint and 8-1 in fast break points. They only made eight trips to the free throw line.

“Our kids fought,” Staley said, “but we ran into a buzzsaw.”

South Carolina did manage to limit 6-foot-7 UCLA star Lauren Betts, who had 11 points and 14 rebounds, despite no longer having a dominant center of their own. The Bruins responded by getting the ball to others and eight of their 10 players scored.

“We did an excellent job on Betts and we got killed by everyone else,” Staley said.

Tessa Johnson was the only other Gamecock in double figures with 14.

“We needed a lot more than Tessa today,” Staley said.

The Gamecocks never got their offense in gear, starting the game 0 for 9 before trailing 20-10 at the end of the first quarter. They were down 43-22 at halftime.

“Our shot selection is something we’re dealing with on a daily basis,” Staley said.

The Gamecocks outscored UCLA 40-34 in the second half, but the Bruins’ big early lead easily held up.

“Beautiful basketball by UCLA,” Staley said. “You can’t help but to love up on it cause it was fluid on both sides of the ball.”

Given that it’s only late November, the Gamecocks have plenty of time to figure things out.

“We had some really good contributions from people that don’t play a whole lot and we could probably give a little bit more minutes to,” Staley said. “Taking a loss will help us focus on anybody that we play.”

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