South Carolina is not SEC Tournament champion. What went wrong? Can Gamecocks respond?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In Music City, South Carolina was forced to face the music.

The No. 1-ranked and top-seed Gamecocks weren't the team celebrating as the streamers cascaded from the rafters onto the court inside Bridgestone Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Moments before, Dre'Una Edwards sank the go-ahead 3-pointer giving No. 7 seed Kentucky a 64-62 lead with 4 seconds remaining in the SEC Tournament Championship Game. South Carolina couldn't follow with a shot of its own, a credit to just enough composure from UK, and it lost.

Their pep band serenaded the loss for Dawn Staley and USC, as coach Kyra Elzy and her Wildcats celebrated at midcourt, mobbing Edwards after the desperation shot fell in.

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South Carolina stood there on the sideline for a few moments, watching Kentucky, before retreating into the tunnel, heading back to the locker room. Zia Cooke, the last one off the court for USC, took a second peek back at the celebration before walking off.

Reality was beginning to set in. Ranked No. 1 all season and having just lost one game, the Gamecocks were the runner-up.

And the soundtrack to USC coming up short for the SEC Championship in Nashville was the compounding lack of execution going back to the fourth quarter of the semifinal matchup when Ole Miss outscored the Gamecocks 21-8 to make what should have been a go-away win an interesting game.

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Kentucky outscored the Gamecocks 21-7 in the fourth quarter of the championship game.

The same issues surfaced. South Carolina's offense went ice cold, making just two field goals in the final 10 minutes against Kentucky, including going scoreless in the final 5:04 of the game. Against Ole Miss, it went 0-for-5.

Staley's teams pride themselves on defense, but when this group needed to lean on its bread-and-butter, the execution wasn't there.

Lapses in facets of this team's game that have consistently been there all season long is what makes the loss in the SEC title game all the more perplexing.

Staley told reporters following the game that the plan was to foul coming out of the timeout with 11 seconds left and USC clinging to a 62-61 lead.

"We had three fouls to give," Staley said. "We executed the first one and out of the timeout we wanted to, if they were dribbling the basketball, to foul. We couldn't quite get to it."

She went on to say South Carolina "took its foot off the gas" despite getting the exact opportunities it worked and needed to get.

"We just didn't put the ball in the hole," Staley said.

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USC failed to execute. But Kentucky did, a culmination of the team practicing late-game, final-shot situations at every water break during every practice this season.

"We're fortunate to have Gail Goestenkors on our staff," Elzy said. "She challenged me this season at every water break, 'Let's have a late-game situation, a side out of bounds or a baseline.' We probably have done 100 of those during the season.

"So our players were very composed and confident. We have went over it about a thousand times. We knew exactly what we were looking for, and thank God the shot went in."

In fact, Kentucky had prepared for both situations, USC fouling or not fouling, during the timeout before the final sequence. Once the Wildcats felt it was going to get a shot up, Elzy wanted all of her players to take a rhythm shot.

And Edwards came open off a defensive breakdown by the Gamecocks.

"I was very confident," Edwards said. "I can shoot. I was open, so I had to let it fly."

The SEC Tournament title wasn't the ultimate goal for USC, but the loss still stings. And how it transpired makes the acceptance of it harder.

Much like the Wildcats' midcourt celebration with music played over by the UK pep band, South Carolina plans to face the defeat head on with the NCAA Tournament around the corner.

"You face it. You can't hide from it. It happened. You deal with it. You face it head on," Staley said. "We'll watch the film, we'll look at what went wrong. We'll look at what things are going right for us and we'll continue to work.

"The ultimate goal is still very much in front of us. We'll buckle down and try not to be the sad faces that are in the locker room today in the next couple of weeks."

Cory Diaz covers the South Carolina Gamecocks for The Greenville News as part of the USA Today Network. Follow his work for all things Gamecocks on Twitter: @CoryDiaz_TGN

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina basketball looks for answers to SEC championship loss