GREENVILLE – The trophy celebration was much smaller than expected. Just six South Carolina women's basketball players took to the stage, with nearly half the team missing.

Kamilla Cardoso couldn’t cut down the nets. Neither could Chloe Kitts, Tessa Johnson or Sakima Walker.

It was bittersweet, but the No. 1-seeded Gamecocks (32-0) captured the SEC Tournament championship, beating second-seeded LSU (28-5) by a score of 79-72 on Sunday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in a game overshadowed by a late shoving match and six ejections.

“It’s bittersweet, like, you want them to protect their sisters,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “At the same time, you want to do it in a way in which you don’t get penalized. You’re not in a position to not be able to celebrate.”

The Gamecocks’ second title of the season turned sour near the end after Cardoso, the 6-foot-7 center was ejected for shoving LSU sophomore Flau’jae Johnson to the floor. The benches cleared, and except one player, those individuals were ejected for leaving and joining the fracas. Cardoso will be forced to miss South Carolina's first NCAA Tournament game due to the ejection.

It created a strange atmosphere on the court during the trophy ceremony, with just six Gamecocks – those who remained in the game – allowed to participate while the rest of the team was in the locker room.

“It was heartbreaking,” said senior starting guard Te-Hina Paopao, who was the lone player from both benches that wasn't ejected. “We couldn’t have done it without them. We’re a team for a reason; we’re a family. It was really hard for us. Just a lot of emotions.”

Paopao said the team celebrated together once they got back to the locker room.

South Carolina still had to finish the game after the skirmish ended and the punishments were handed out. There was two minutes to go, and the Gamecocks had a seven-point lead. Six players were left for the Gamecocks and five for the Tigers.

“We had to fight and claw to finish it,” Staley said. “I thought we did a great job making free throws at the end of the game, and Breezy (Hall) hitting a couple of big shots to give us a lead in which we didn’t have to panic.”

The Gamecocks closed it out, but neither the game nor the SEC Tournament title – and the perfect record – will be the story. Not even the career-high 24 points from freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, who was named the tournament MVP. Staley apologized for all of that after the game, adding that it wasn’t indicative of women’s basketball.

"What you saw were two teams, highly competitive teams, trying to win a conference championship,” Staley said. “(The teams) did not handle it well. Our players didn't; their players didn't. And it escalated."

Staley took responsibility for her team’s side of the scuffle, saying the coaching staff talks to the players about how not to react, but that things change in real time.

“I know that anybody, Kamilla as well as the other four or five players that were ejected, if they had a chance to do it all over again, they’d do it differently,” Staley said.

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Staley didn’t talk to Cardoso before the postgame press conference. Cardoso issued an apology on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the game.

Staley wanted to head back into the locker room and celebrate with the players who were ejected as much as she wanted to stay on the court and cut down the nets with those who could.

“It’s bittersweet,” Staley said. “But we put ourselves in that position, we made decisions that force our hand to be in that situation. I’m hoping that’s the last of the last. I hope that’s the biggest lesson that any of our teams have to experience.”

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: South Carolina basketball's SEC trophy ceremony overshadowed by ejections