Women's Hoops at Home Sunday

No. 1/1 South Carolina is back at home on Sun., Jan. 28, hosting Vanderbilt in a 3 p.m. tipoff at Colonial Life Arena.

Fan Information

• Due to visiting dignitaries and related security events downtown, there will be significant traffic delays and disruptions around Colonial Life Arena.
• A fan shuttle has been added for this game. Fans can park for free at Founder’s Park (lot at Williams Street and Blossom) and ride the shuttle to Colonial Life Arena (1-6 p.m.).
• Because this game is a sellout, doors at Colonial Life Arena will open 90 minutes before tipoff (1:30 p.m.)
• Fans are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Campus CommUNITY Pantry.
• The teams will be celebrating the SEC’s We Back Pat week, wearing special warmup shirts for the game, which honors legendary Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Pat Summitt.

The Vanderbilt Series
The Gamecocks are 21-21 all-time against Vanderbilt, tying the series behind their current 15-game win streak against the Commodores. That streak includes eight wins at Colonial Life Arena by an average of 26.8 points.

In the most recent meeting (Jan. 19, 2023, in Nashville), South Carolina used stingy defense to build a 45-17 halftime lead and never looked back. The Gamecocks shot 61.9 percent for the game, including 75.0 percent in the third quarter. Kamilla Cardoso turned in a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds in just 19 minutes of action.

By the Numbers
5 – Five Gamecocks average double-figure points in SEC games –Te-Hina Paopao (13.3), Bree Hall (12.7), Kamilla Cardoso (11.7), Raven Johnson (10.5), MiLaysia Fulwiley (10.3).

14.3 – Over the last three games, freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley averaged 14.3 points on 61.5% shooting, including 57.1% from 3-point range.

+36.8 – South Carolina’s +36.8 scoring margin leads the nation with the No. 2 team at just +28.5 (LSU).

Gamecock Notables

• South Carolina’s NET strength of schedule is ranked sixth, and their eight wins over NET top-50 opponents leads the nation.

• The Gamecocks have out-rebounded their opponent 17 times this season and are fourth in the nation in rebounding margin (+14.4).

• South Carolina has out-shot its opponent in every game this season, leading the Gamecocks to the best field goal percentage in the nation (.523) and the best field goal percentage defense in the nation (.302).

• The Gamecocks have allowed an opponent to reach 70 points just three times this season – #10/10 Notre Dame, #14/11 Maryland, #9/9 LSU – and rank seventh in the nation in scoring defense (53.1 ppg).

• South Carolina’s bench is fourth in the nation with 33.9 points per game and has been out-scored just three times – at Duke, at Bowling Green, at Florida.

• Just four games have been within 10 points at the end of the third quarter – at #24/24 North Carolina (+6), at Duke (+3), vs. #11/7 Utah (+5), at #9/9 LSU (-4). The Gamecocks outs-cored those opponents in the fourth by an average of 7.0 points

• National Player of the Year candidate Kamilla Cardoso’s 10 double-doubles (16th in the nation) include two in the last three games and five in the last seven.

• Senior Te-Hina Paopao’s offensive impact includes her 12.5 points per game on top of her teammates’ 9.7 points per game off her assists.

• Freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley has been locked in over the last three games, averaging 14.3 points on 61.5 percent shooting, including 8-of-14 from 3-point range (.571).

• Junior Sania Feagin has improved her consistency this season, especially over the last four games, averaging 9.8 points on 80.0 percent shooting in that time.

Home Sweet Home
The Gamecocks are 521-165 (.759) in home games (some records prior to 1976-77 did not include location of games). Current head coach Dawn Staley is 209-34 at home with that .860 winning percentage is the best in program history.

South Carolina currently has a program-record 50-game home winning streak that began on Dec. 17, 2020.

Playing in its 22nd season at Colonial Life Arena, South Carolina boasts a 272-67 (.802) record in the building, including four undefeated seasons since 2013-14. Staley’s share of that record is 206-34 (.858).

In SEC action, South Carolina is 143-89 (.616) at home with Staley posting a 99-22 (.818) mark.

Dime Droppers
There are few things head coach Dawn Staley likes more than the extra pass. Long preaching that the ball will find who should shoot it, she has seen this year’s team bring that philosophy to life. The Gamecocks twice broke the program’s Staley-era record for single-game assists in the first three games of the season.

South Carolina has assisted on 55.8 percent of its made field goals this season. The Gamecocks are 10th in the country with an SEC-best 19.7 assists per game and are ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.5 also an SEC best.

Four Gamecocks average at least two assists per game, including center Kamilla Cardoso’s 2.3.

Raven Johnson leads the way at third in the SEC with 5.2 assists per game. Her 17 assists against Clemson (Nov. 16) were the second-most in program history, the most by an SEC player since 2005 and the most by any NCAA Div. I player this season. She is second in the SEC with a 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks seventh in the NCAA.

Behind Johnson, Te-Hina Paopao is seventh in the SEC with 4.1 assists per game, and her 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio is fifth. In SEC action, Paopao’s 4.7 assists per game lead the Gamecocks and are fifth in the league.

Ain’t Life Grand
South Carolina posted the program’s 1,000th win in style with its 76-70 win over #9/9 LSU (Jan. 25) in front of a sold out crowd at the Tigers’ Pete Maravich Center and an ESPN audience that reached 1.55 million to be the night’s most watched sporting event on television, eclipsing that night’s NBA game.

A pair of Gamecocks also hit the 1,000 career points mark this season in transfers Kamilla Cardoso and Te-Hina Paopao. South Carolina has had at least one 1,000-point scorer in their roster in nine of the last 10 seasons – just the 2020-21 roster lacked one. Of those nine rosters, six included multiple Gamecocks to have reached the mark. The 2016-17 National Championship team featured four Gamecocks who had achieved the milestone – A’ja Wilson and Alaina Coates both hit the mark as Gamecocks while Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray had done so prior to joining South Carolina.

Paopao was the first to hit the mark this season, scoring her 1,000th point in her third game as a Gamecock (vs. Clemson, Nov. 16). Her three seasons at Oregon saw her amass 963 of those points.

Cardoso’s 1,000+ points have come mostly as a Gamecock but include her 326 points as a freshman at Syracuse (2020-21).