Texas women’s basketball pushed to the brink in painful loss to South Carolina

Texas women's basketball traveled to South Carolina to take on the Gamecocks yesterday. After falling to no.4 in the AP Top 25, Texas had a lot to prove after having a bad game in Baton Rouge this past Sunday. It was very uncharacteristic for the Longhorns to have a game like that; however, teams might have a bad game in the middle of the season. However, losing two consecutive games is very weird for this Longhorns team as they lose to South Carolina 68-65.

Give it up to Coach Dawn Staley and her staff for really having their team ready to play. It's hard to have two wins against South Carolina in the same season. If you beat SC once, they remember that loss forever and will get their revenge the next time you play them. While Vic Schaefer had the 'Horns ready to go, it came down to possessions and South Carolina capitalized.

Here are four takeaways from last night's loss to the Gamecocks:

1. Texas was locked in on defense

Texas was really good defensively at the start of the game. After Rori Harmon shot a couple of free throws a couple of minutes into the game, the Longhorns stole the ball on the inbounds. If you are going to hang with teams like South Carolina and LSU, your defense has to be elite. The only thing I wished the Longhorns could do in the first couple of minutes was convert some of those turnovers into points because you don't know how many possessions you'll get against South Carolina.

2. Everybody contributed in last night's game

Another thing that stood out about yesterday's game was that everybody was contributing. Seven different players scored in last night's victory, which was different than Sunday's game against LSU. That's what makes Texas so lethal to go up against: the number of players who can score more than ten points a game.

Booker led the team with 24 points and Harmon was right behind her with 16. Great overall team effort by the Longhorns, despite the loss

3. Too many turnovers

The one thing that cost Texas the win against the Gamecocks was too many turnovers. Even though they were scoring on the other end of the court, the turnovers crept up on them and were the reason the Gamecocks came away with the win in the final minutes.

4. Rori Harmon redeemed herself after Sunday's game

Harmon showed up big time for the Longhorns. After a terrible game against the Tigers on Sunday, Harmon was instrumental in the Longhorns' big first quarter yesterday. There will be times during the season when an opposing team will shut down a player.

What matters is how the player responds in the next game. The Longhorns return home to Austin to host the Texas A&M Aggies on Sunday afternoon at the Moody Center. That might be the biggest game of the season because of the rivalry between the schools.