Amid an unceremonious UConn defeat, it was an even rarer Sarah Strong instance that took precedence. Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies suffered a tough Final Four 48-62 defeat against South Carolina on Saturday. But it wasn’t just this defeat that left the Auriemma fuming; it was a sequence of play involving Strong in which she tore her jersey, leaving Auriemma immensely frustrated. Now, Strong was the one in the center of this incident who shared her two cents on how it turned out.

The play occurred at the end of the third quarter when Strong was moving towards the opposition court. She failed to score off this sequence of play, courtesy of the abundance of South Carolina players in the paint, but just a few seconds later, it was revealed that she had torn her jersey. Reports suggested it was still unclear whether a Gamecocks player was at fault or whether Strong herself had ripped her jersey.

But speaking at the post-game press conference, Strong clarified that the incident was just another regular occurrence during the sequence of the play. “It was an accident,” Strong said. “Missed my shot, and ripped it back out.”

Following the incident, Strong went to the locker room and changed her No. 21 jersey to No. 55. Her press conference shows that she’s not putting any South Carolina defender or the team itself at the center of it. Furthermore, broadcasts have also shown that there’s no substantial evidence of any Gamecocks defender tearing up Strong’s jersey while defending.

But for Auriemma, he had already chosen sides even before the team headed for the press conference. Moments after the final buzzer, the UConn head coach stood for an interview, hinting that one of the Gamecocks’ defenders might be at fault for the incident.

Auriemma’s frustration peaked further because he felt the South Carolina players were not being called by the refs, despite their hard fouls and defense in some instances during the game, especially in the third quarter. “I’ve been coaching a long time. I’ve never had a kid have to change their jersey because somebody ripped it and the official said, ‘I didn’t see it,” Auriemma said of the incident.

“Their coach (Dawn Staley) rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referee some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get 6-0, and I’ve got a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on, man, this is for the national championship,” he added.

Sarah Strong’s performance on the court was quite good, with a double-double, including 12 points and rebounds. Her shooting was a bit cold in the game, as she went just 4-for-16 from the field. But besides her, the team didn’t really step up in this big game against South Carolina, and even Strong clarified that it was the sole reason for their defeat and for their season ending in an ungracious fashion.

Sarah Strong Refuses to Shift the Blame to Anyone as She Pinpoints the Team’s Disappointing Performance

While their jersey tears and Geno Auriemma-Dawn Staley’s aggressive tussle following the game had their moments, the team’s performance might get lost in the shadows. But, as a matter of fact, UConn didn’t seem to be their true selves in the game, and whatever could have gone wrong for them, it did.

Speaking at the press conference after the game, Sarah Strong didn’t hesitate to point out that the entire team is at fault for this loss, not just a single player. “We know what they were trying to do,” Strong said. “They were aggressive; they did whatever they wanted to do.  We’ve played them before, we know the players. We know everything about them, that’s on us.”

The box score clearly reflects the entire story for UConn. The Huskies shot poorly throughout the game, just 31% from the field and 29% from beyond the arc. The Huskies also committed 17 fouls in the game, which is an exceedingly high number against a team like South Carolina. The fairness of these calls is a debate for another day, though, and it can rage on for hours.

Strong’s partner-in-crime, Azzi Fudd, had a rare off-day in the worst possible scenario for UConn. The UConn senior scored just 8 points in her 39 minutes and missed 12 shots from the field. Ashlynn Shade supported Strong with 10 points in the game. But at the end of the day, it was all too little.

As for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina, they peaked at the right moment. After all, it would take a heck of a defensive job to stop the UConn Huskies from scoring just 48 points in the game. The Gamecocks capitalized perfectly on the opportunities that UConn presented to them, especially from the free-throw line, where Staley’s team converted 18 of 22.

All in all, these small phases that the Huskies lost came back to haunt them at the end of a tightrope game, which left the players like Fudd and Strong controlling their emotions and head coach Geno Auriemma going all-out aggressive at the refs from the sidelines and after the game.