Dawn Staley, Geno Auriemma Physically Separated After South Carolina Beat...

Dawn Staley and her No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks got revenge on Geno Auriemma and his No. 1 UConn Huskies in the Final Four of the women's NCAA Tournament on Friday night. The Gamecocks avenged their 82-59 loss to UConn in the national title game last April by handing the Huskies their first loss of this season and vanquishing their hopes of repeating as national champions. As the clock was winding down to triple zeroes on South Carolina's 62-48 win, the ESPN broadcast panned to the sideline where Auriemma and Staley got into a heated exchange. Staley reached out her hand to Auriemma, whose back was to the camera. It's hard to tell whether Auriemma shook her hand, but he said something that did not sit well with Staley. Staley could be seen screaming, among many other things, "Don't do that!" Auriemma and Staley had to be physically separated by the officials and other members of their respective coaching staffs. The clock had 0.1 seconds remaining while this was happening, so there had to be a customary inbounds to make the result official. Once South Carolina officially upset UConn, Staley shook hands and spoke with someone else from UConn's side. Auriemma walked off the court alone without acknowledging her. Staley told ESPN's Holly Rowe, "I have no idea, but I'm gonna let you know this: I'm of integrity. I'm of integrity, so if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did. I guess he thought I didn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game. I didn't know. I went down there pregame [and] 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 start of the fourth quarter, Auriemma went on a heated rant about the officiating. In doing so, he took a not-so-subtle shot at Staley. “There were six fouls called that quarter, all against us,” Auriemma told Rowe. “They’ve been beating the [expletive] out of our guys the entire game. I’m not making excuses because we haven’t been able to make a shot, but this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the refs names you don’t want to hear, and now we get six to zero. 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." Auriemma was referring to Sarah Strong, the AP women's college basketball Player of the Year, who was later seen on an ESPN replay ripping her own jersey. After the dust settles, South Carolina will face the winner of No. 1 UCLA and No. 1 Texas in the national championship game on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. EST. Staley and the Gamecocks will appear in the national championship game for the fourth time in five years and will play for their third national title in five years.