No. 3 Gamecocks at Texas A&M for Monday Night Tilt

Gamecock Notables

• South Carolina’s offense is fourth in the country in scoring at 88.7 points per game and in field goal percentage, hitting 51.2 percent of its shots. Those numbers include 88.4 points per game and 49.9 percent shooting in road games.

• The Gamecocks have been on the move this season, ranking second in the nation with 22.1 fast break points per game, accounting for 25.0 percent of the offense. The number includes 32.9 percent of the points scored when Raven Johnson is on the court, per Synergy.

• South Carolina is ninth in the nation in rebounding margin (10.8) and 12th in rebounds per game (43.6) In SEC play, the Gamecocks are fourth with a +7.1 rebounding margin and third at 42.13 rebounds per outing.

• South Carolina is 10th in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at .376, which includes five games of at least 50.0 percent accuracy. Junior Tessa Johnson leads the way with her SEC-best 46.0 percent outside shooting to rank seventh in the country. Senior Ta’Niya Latson is hitting a career-best 39.2 percent from the arc, and senior Raven Johnson is at a career-high  37.0 percent shooting.

• Sophomore forward Joyce Edwards is among the SEC’s best on both sides of the ball. Offensively, she ranks among the league’s top 15 in scoring (3rd, 20.0 ppg), field goal percentage (4th, .593) and offensive rebounds (13th, 2.8) Her scoring and shooting percentage rank 17th and 16th in the nation, respectively. On defense, she is ninth in the league with 1.3 blocks per game (1.1 vs. SEC) and 11th in steals per game at 2.0).

• South Carolina’s primary point guards have been thriving in SEC play. Starter Raven Johnson is pouring in 12.3 points per game on 54.8 percent shooting, which ranks second in the league. She is handing out 3.8 assists per league game with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio (4th). Off the bench, Maddy McDaniel is locked in for league play, averaging 3.1 assists with a 3.57 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks second in the conference. She is adding 3.8 points per game to the offense and has 1.3 steals per game as well.

• Freshman Ayla McDowell has been rock solid over the last two games, averaging 7.0 points on 55.6 percent shooting, including 50.0 percent (4-of-8) from 3-point range, while playing 17.5 minutes per game in that stretch.

By the Numbers
+14.8 – The Gamecocks are out-scoring SEC teams in the paint by 14.8 points per game.

16.5 – Tessa Johnson averages a team-best 16.5 points in SEC road games this season.

27.0 – The Gamecock bench has averaged 27.0 points over the last four games.

The Texas A&M Series
The Gamecocks are 13-4 all-time against Texas A&M, including a 5-2 mark in College Station.  All 17 games have come since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012-13.

The most recent meeting was a 90-49 South Carolina victory on Jan. 9, 2025, in Columbia. Joyce Edwards led the offense with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and she paced the Gamecocks on the boards with 10 for the first SEC double-double of her career. The Gamecocks shot over 60.0 percent in the first and third quarters en route to the commanding win.

In their last trip to Reed Arena, then-No. 1/1 South Carolina posted a 99-64 victory on Jan. 21, 2024, behind 67.2 percent shooting for the game – the fourth-best single-game percentage in program history..

Staley’s Standard
In her 26th season as a head coach, Dawn Staley has a .777 (668-192) winning percentage, which ranks eighth in the nation among active head coaches and 10th all-time. With three national championships, she ranks fourth among head coaches all-time in NCAA titles.

Staley is one of just two women’s basketball coaches to lead their teams to multiple 40-game win streaks in NCAA history with the Gamecocks’ program-record 43-game streak (2023-24) ranking seventh longest in NCAA history. She is one of just 11 men’s or women’s basketball coaches all-time to win at least three NCAA National Championships and the first Black head coach to win multiple titles She is one of seven coaches to lead a team to at least four NCAA National Championship games.

Now in her 18th season with the Gamecocks, Staley is the program’s all-time winningest coach (496) with a program-record 14 postseason appearances. She accounts for all seven of the Gamecocks’ Final Four appearances and the only NCAA National Championships in program history.  Her leadership on the court and in the community resulted in the City of Columbia commissioning a statue of Staley, which stands a short distance from the Gamecocks’ home Colonial Life Arena.

Staley’s nine SEC regular-season championships trail only Pat Summitt’s 16 in league history, and her seven SEC Coach of the Year awards trail Summitt’s league record by just one. Staley’s 221 SEC regular-season wins are the most among active league coaches and third all-time – behind just Summitt (Tennessee, 306) and Andy Landers (Georgia, 273). She was the second-fastest to the 200-win mark in league history with her 255 games trailing Summitt’s mark of 229. Staley’s .795 SEC winning percentage (221-57) is second only to Summitt (.874) among coaches in the league more than five seasons. She owns the SEC record for consecutive regular-season conference victories with a 57-game streak that began in the 2021-22 season and ended in 2024-25.

Block Party
The Gamecocks have been a premier shot blocking program since their first national championship in 2017. They ranked in the top 15 in blocks per game that season and have only climbed higher in the eight subsequent seasons, including four years leading the nation in the stat and twice coming in second. Beyond the number of blocks, their block percentage has led the nation three seasons.

This season, South Carolina is fifth in the nation with 6.3 blocks per game, including 4.6 against ranked foes and an SEC-best 6.3 per league game. The Gamecocks have blocked 15.1 percent of opponents’ 2-point attempts, which ranks eighth in the nation, per Her Hoop Stats.

Madina Okot tops the individual list with 1.6 blocks per game to rank fifth in the SEC, and that number holds steady at 1.6 per league game. Joyce Edwards is next at 1.3 per game (9th) on the season. Gamecock guards have added 2.3 blocks per game to the average.

M.O.-mentum
After just starting the sport at 17 years old, 6-foot-6 center Madina Okot is becoming one of the most dominant centers in the sport. Last season at Mississippi State, she was the SEC’s top percentage shooter (.649) and fourth in rebounding. With her final year of eligibility, she came to Columbia with the mindset to be the next entry in the Gamecocks’ legacy of dominant post players.

The quiet Okot has drawn praise from her head coach on her strength and agility and been challenged to show her dominance every time she steps on the court. After an average season opener, Okot has been rising to that challenge, and both her production and her comfort level have been growing exponentially.

Okot is among the nation’s top 20 in three stats, including ranking seventh in the nation with 13 double-doubles. She is 19th in rebounds per game (10.3– 3rd in SEC) and 14th in field goal percentage (.597 – 2nd in SEC). She is fourth in the SEC with 3.6 offensive rebounds per game, and she has turned 45.0 percent of those immediately into points. Her 1.5 blocks per game come in seventh in the SEC, and she has 1.6 steals per game, including a team-high 2.4 in SEC action to rank ninth.