UConn coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a heated exchange on the sideline after the Gamecocks beat the undefeated Huskies 62-48 in Friday night’s semi-final of the NCAA Women’s Tournament. South Carolina ended UConn’s winning streak at 54 games and secured a return trip to the national championship game.
As the two went to shake hands with 0.1 seconds left, Auriemma appeared to go to shake Staley’s hand and began yelling in her direction. Staley responded with words of her own. Assistant coaches went to calm the two sides, and UConn inbounded the ball to end the game.
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Staley went to shake hands with UConn staffers while Auriemma headed for the tunnel without appearing to shake the hands of any South Carolina players or coaches. Players from both teams shook hands before the UConn players sprinted up the tunnel.
“I’m of integrity. So if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did,” Staley told ESPN’s Holly Rowe in the postgame interview. “I guess he thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff’s hand. I don’t know what he came with after the game, but hey, sometimes things get heated. We move on.”
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Auriemma gave a heated mid-game interview to Rowe, airing his frustration about officiating.
“There were six fouls called that [third] quarter, all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the shit out of our guys down there the entire game. And I’m not making excuses for us, we haven’t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t want to hear, and now we get six to zero and I got a kid with a ripped jersey and [the referees] go ‘I didn’t see it.’ C’mon, man. This is for the national championship.”
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UConn’s frustration boiled over after a brutal offensive night for the team’s All-America combo of Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. Strong finished with just 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting. Fudd scored eight on 3-of-15 shooting, including 2 of 9 from long range.
Bodies were flying under the basket for the majority of the night for both teams. UConn was whistled for 17 fouls, while South Carolina was called for eight.
UConn had defeated South Carolina in last year’s national championship game. The Gamecocks will face the winner of Friday night’s other semi-final between UCLA and Texas.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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