South Carolina's Dawn Staley reacts after tense exchange with UConn's Geno Auriemma

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks finally had their revenge on Geno Auriemma.

South Carolina ended UConn's undefeated run on Friday night with a defensive masterpiece to punch their ticket to the national championship game.

However, attention shifted from the court to the sidelines as coaches Auriemma and Staley engaged in a tense postgame exchange. 

The legendary UConn coach claimed that his colleague didn't shake his hand pre-game, to which Staley had a simple response.

Dawn Staley just wanted to congratulate her players

"I guess he thought I didn't shake his hand at the beginning of the game," Staley told ESPN's Molly Rowe. "I didn't know. I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff's hand."

Whatever the case, Staley just wanted to give her players her flowers for their outstanding performance in the biggest game of the season.

"I'm super proud of our kids and I'm not going to let any of this take anything away from the performance on the floor," Staley said. 

The Gamecocks defense held UConn stars Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd to 20 total points on 7-of-31 shooting. They outscored the Huskies 18-9 in the fourth quarter to finally get back at them from last year's blowout loss in the national championship game.

Staley will now pursue her fourth national championship since taking over the program, facing a UCLA Bruins team that put on a defensive clinic of its own in a 51-44 win over Texas.

As for Auriemma, this definitely wasn't a great look for one of the most successful characters in college hoops history.