Gamecock Women's Basketball Schedule Updates
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina women’s basketball learned more about its 2023-24 schedule today with the release of the home-away slate of SEC opponents and ESPN’s announcement of the ACC-SEC Women’s Challenge, which will send the Gamecocks to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina on Thu., Nov. 30.
The newly formed ACC-SEC Challenge was introduced in November 2022 to replace the two conferences’ previous challenges with the Big Ten and Big 12, respectively, across both men’s and women’s basketball. The ACC-SEC Challenge will feature 28 games across both sports this season with all 28 airing on an ESPN platform.
Head coach Dawn Staley returns seven members of her 2023 NCAA Final Four squad, including rising senior and 2023 SEC Sixth Woman of the Year Kamilla Cardoso and SEC All-Freshman selection and team assist leader Raven Johnson. Rising juniors Sania Feagin and Bree Hall as well as rising sophomores Talaysia Cooper, Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins round out the returning group. Staley added transfers Te-Hina Paopao and Sakima Walker, who each have up to two seasons of eligibility remaining. The group of veterans will welcome three incoming freshmen who, along with early enrollee Kitts, comprised the No. 2 signing class in the nation – 13th-ranked Milaysia Fulwiley, 25th-ranked Tessa Johnson and 40th-ranked Sahnya Jah.
North Carolina finished the 2022-23 season at #20/21 after advancing to the NCAA Tournament second round. The Tar Heels were 22-11 overall, including an 11-7 mark in the ACC, and return seven letterwinners from that squad, including All-ACC First-Team selections Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby, who led the team in scoring and rebounding, respectively.
The November 30 game will be the first regular-season meeting between South and North Carolina since Dec. 18, 2013. Since then, the teams have met three times in the NCAA Sweet 16, playing in 2014 (Palo Alto, Calif.), 2015 (Greensboro, N.C.) and in 2022 (Greensboro, N.C.), en route to the Gamecocks’ second National Championship. This season’s game will be the first matchup on one or the others’ home court since the Tar Heels were in Columbia on Jan. 4, 1989.
In the SEC season ahead, South Carolina will play NCAA Sweet 16 finisher Tennessee, WNIT participant Missouri and Kentucky twice. Four more NCAA Tournament teams will come to Colonial Life Arena in Alabama, Sweet 16 entry Ole Miss and second-round finishers Georgia and Mississippi State. Vanderbilt is also on the Gamecocks’ home schedule. South Carolina will travel to NCAA champion LSU, WNIT quarterfinalists Arkansas and Florida, WNIT participant Auburn, and Texas A&M.
The back-to-back reigning SEC Champion South Carolina has won seven league regular-season titles in the last 10 seasons, not finishing lower than second in that time span. The Gamecocks added seven SEC Tournament titles in that time as well.
The Gamecocks’ 2023-24 schedule also includes previously announced games against Notre Dame on Nov. 6 in Paris and against Utah on Dec. 10 in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase in Uncasville, Conn.
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and the team’s social media accounts (@GamecockWBB) for the most up-to-date information on South Carolina women’s basketball.
