South Carolina women’s basketball beats UConn

Junior guard Zia Cooke said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was pretty calm during her halftime speech in Monday’s Battle 4 Atlantis championship game against UConn in the Bahamas.

“She just gave us a few plays that she thought would work for us,” said Cooke, whose top-ranked Gamecocks trailed by three points at the break. “She told us we were in the game. She kept us all motivated.”

And maybe Staley simply reminded the Gamecocks that they are a really good team. They showed that in rallying to beat UConn 73-57, giving South Carolina its first victory in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in program history after going 0-4 in those games previously.

The Gamecocks displayed a resilience that most teams don’t against UConn. South Carolina was down as much as 13 in the first half, which is usually a big danger zone for Huskies opponents. Once they get a double-digit lead, it is very hard to reel them in. The Gamecocks cut the deficit to 36-33 by halftime.

Their second half defense was a clinic, holding UConn to 21 points over the two quarters. The Gamecocks cut down on their turnovers, which helped limit UConn’s transition game, and they took smart shots.

South Carolina is now 6-0 with three victories over top-10 teams NC State, Oregon and UConn. The Gamecocks have two more top-10 matchups in December — vs. Maryland on Dec. 12 and Stanford on Dec. 21 — and then they meet UConn again on Jan. 27 when the Huskies visit Columbia, South Carolina, for a rematch.

Here is everything we learned from Monday’s game and how will it affect the Gamecocks and Huskies going forward.

South Carolina’s defense wears teams down

And if you can do that to UConn, you can do it to anybody. We know how good the Gamecocks have been at that end of the court, but Staley explained…