Following a 66-56 win over LSU on Friday, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media. Here’s everything she had to say.

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Dawn, pretty fast paced first quarter, 22-21, and then seemed like maybe both teams maybe got a little fatigued, or just the defense settle in. What did you see from the bench?

“I mean, I saw the the mental piece of playing such a game during this time. I don’t think we played necessarily discipline. It was just, it was hard to get our players to just kind of lock in on what we needed to do and sometimes you just gotta let them play.

“You know, it was fast paced the first quarter, you know, then the break. I mean, it really is a blur, because I’m looking at them, I’m looking at them play, and it’s not really us offensively and then defensively I just thought we gave a gritty performance.

“We just locked in, and we just continued to fight, continued to get loose balls, and the 50/50 balls and the rebounds that we didn’t come up with, we were in the mix. So some of those rebounds, they were scoring off in the in the first quarter, you know, the rest of the second, third and fourth quarters, I thought they didn’t score. They got the dead ball, but we’re able to set our defense up and and defend.”

Coach sticking with that defensive talk, 22 points off the turnovers, 11 blocks, 13 steals. How locked in is this team right now on the defensive side of the ball in your estimation?

“I think we’re pretty locked in. I think they really are connected. They understand that we’re pretty good. They do. They understand that, and they understand why we’re good. And that is our gap defense is pretty good, our scramble out when teams get ahead of the possession, and then we just got to fight to just go get the basketball. Tonight, the blocked shots were impressive. Just our grit, was great. You need to have all those things to be the team like LSU.”

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Raven’s someone whose stats have kind of been under a microscope all year, a lot of people like to pick apart the field goal percentage. She had those four points in five seconds, in a game like this, where there’s so much highs and lows, what does it say about her in those five seconds, but also her ability to really weather whatever storm?

“You know, people can break Raven’s game down, but at the end of the day, Raven’s a winner.

“(It) doesn’t matter how many points she scores, doesn’t matter how many assists she has, doesn’t matter her steals at the end of the day, she’s a winner. She’s always been a winner.

“And then, you know, with her on our roster, we’ve done nothing but won with her. So I mean, the naysayers can say what they want, and I do think she’s a pro, I do think the things that she does for our team translates to to a pro lifestyle.

“Does she need to be a little bit more efficient? Probably. You know, but she’s bringing everything else that a coach would want, all those intangibles, you know, it can’t be forgotten.”

You guys haven’t really had a game like this, just kind of turned into a rock fight all year, except for maybe Michigan in the opener. Is it good as a coach to see your team kind of winning a type of game they haven’t really played all year?

“It is. I mean, I think we’re chameleons, so to speak. You know, we can play the type of game that’s being played. I thought we were forced to play a certain way tonight, and it was just the gravity of the game. It was necessary for us to win this game, the implications of the SEC standings, the NCAA Tournament, like all of those things matter. And we can say it’s not a big game, but it’s a big game. It’s a big game come March, when we’re playing in the SEC Tournament, you know, when the NCAA committee gets together and see us winning this game, and for the tiebreaker as well.”

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The statement you guys have made the last couple of weeks, you know, beating a number of really impressive teams this year. That’s got to say something about, you know, where you guys are headed, what you guys are able to accomplish?

“Yes, I think we’ve gotten to a place where we’ve trimmed the fat off of losing, like, losing to UCLA has helped us just kind of refocus and get back to how we need to play to be successful in this league.

“You have to figure out what it is that on any given year, what this team needs to do, what our team needs to do to win. And for us, it’s a collective effort.”

Hey Dawn, you guys overcome the rebound discrepancy and how are you guys also able to limit their their second chance opportunities when they got them?

“I mean, I thought we fought. You know, we fought, I know Aneesah (Morrow) is (a) really, really hard guard like she is. I told our team, there isn’t anybody that we played this year that’s going to play like she plays no one, right? And I don’t think there’s going to be another person that plays like her.

“I thought our guards did a really good job at gang rebounding, and if we didn’t get it, then we’re able to establish setting up our defense and trying it again. And fortunately for us, they didn’t score a whole lot off of their second chance points after maybe the first or second quarter.”

Sania Feagin having another big day, I know you talked about just her path with you, and learning from Aliyah (Boston), learning from Kamilla (Cardoso). What have you seen from her these past two to three weeks, and her growth, and also just her belief in herself to be a go to big time player.

“I mean, it’s been a build up for her. I think Feagin is now starting to just impose her will and showcase her talent, because she’s very, very talented. I said from day one, she was probably the most talented post player that we had. And we had Aliyah (Boston).

“And I know we’re probably not utilizing all of her skill set, but you’re seeing it like she’s been passing the ball incredibly well, she understands what we need. She’s a communicator out there on the floor, like she’s a unifier on the floor. And now her offense is starting to get going for us.

“Now I don’t know if other coaches would have allowed her to get away with sometimes not giving her best effort, but she understood she wasn’t giving her best effort. This is what her best effort looks like on a consistent basis.

“I mean, she could take what we were dishing out, and that is, no, you’re not gonna you’re not gonna settle, not gonna settle, and she just stuck with it, and now you’re seeing, I think she’s gonna put herself in a real good position to play at the next level.”

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It looked like you guys were going after the LSU stars early on in that game. Was that an effort to try to get some tired legs towards the back half of that game?

“Oh, absolutely. I mean, that’s part of it, you know, keep pushing the ball down the floor, keep making them work hard for catches. Yes, we know they play six or seven players, and you have to use that against them. They’re that talented that if you allow them to to rest or defense, they have more they have more energy to take advantage of your own offense.”

Your depth outscored their depth 31 to 2. Talk me through that and how your bench play today.

“I always tell our bench like you’re the number one bench in the country, like only you have that number beside you, that number one. And and they can, they could go other places and start well, I gotta let them know what they mean to our team. Like we don’t win without the contributions in the first half of MiLaysia Fulwiley, we don’t win.

“And then you come back and Tessa hits the biggest shot of the game to me. You know, the baseline out of bounds, huge when they were mounting a comeback. You got Joyce? Joyce is going to be the best player in college basketball one day.

“I don’t know if that’s what she wants to do, but she’s like, very Aliyah-like, when it comes to what she pours into her game. So a lot of times, basketball will pay you, and it’s such a way that that you become the best player in the country.”

Joyce, I feel like is the most casual leading point scorer in the country. For this team and for the playoff run you want to go on, what can she be for this team?

“Joyce injects what we need. She has the physical presence to guard, she has the Moxie to guard. She plays with huge bravado on both sides of the basketball. She believes that (when) she’s got a smaller person on her or bigger person that she’s going to score. She defends like she’s unafraid.

“She plays the right way, like she makes good basketball decisions, and that’s why she’s able to be as efficient as she’s been over the past couple of games. And you know now she can add this to her belt. Picked up her third foul early in the third quarter, and I wanted to take her out, but I also wanted to keep her in, because of her presence. She just said, ‘Let me stay in, I’m good.’ And when a player says that, you know, it’s a trust thing at that point.”

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Obviously, there’s a defensive performance tonight, and that’s a physical talent and physical positive. But can you talk about how it’s also a mental strength to kind of frustrate opponents and get in their head, especially in big games like this?

“I don’t think we frustrated them at all. I mean, they are a team that’s probably, you know, mentally tough, like they played with bravado. They play to win. They seem to turn the page for us. We we have to play that way.

“We have to be disruptive. We have to force people to have to turn the page and turn the page quickly, or else, you know, we can see it happening out there in the court. I didn’t see it happening out there in the court against LSU.”

Dawn, Raven was just sitting here talk about how the fans at CLA tonight were the six man. Based off tonight. Do you think there is anything special from the crowd tonight?

“That’s probably the loudest it’s been. And I know some people may may argue that, you know, maybe a UConn situation might have been louder, but I mean, for them, I mean on the Friday night, at 5 p.m. to pack the house, to change their plans, because some people flew in to see the game On Thursday and got pushed back, Quite incredible.

“I will never get tired of this place being full and them cheering us on, and I’ll never tired of just showing my appreciation for them.”