Gamecocks Set for Monday Night Tournament Game

Gamecock Notables

• In the Dawn Staley era, South Carolina has played an NCAA Tournament rematch with a regular-season opponent 14 times across nine tournaments. All 14 NCAA Tournament meetings had the same result as the prior game (or majority of games if met more than once in the regular season). In the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Gamecocks faced three familiar foes.

• In postseason games this season, the Gamecocks have made their biggest move in the third quarter, outscoring opponents in that period by an average of 12.3 points. .

• Sophomore national player of the year candidate Joyce Edwards has been solid all-around in the postseason, averaging 19.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists – all at or above her season averages. She has shot 61.5 percent from the field across the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

• Junior Tessa Johnson has had her outside shot dialed in for the postseason, shooting 47.6 percent from 3-point range over the last four games.

• South Carolina’s bench has averaged 19.0 points and 10.8 rebounds in the postseason. Agot Makeer tops the group’s scoring with 7.8 points per game on 59.1 percent shooting. Alicia Tournebize leads the rebounding effort with 6.7 per game over the last four outings.

• Saturday’s game moved several Gamecocks into some of the program’s single-season top five lists. Joyce Edwards stands fifth in 20-point games (20) and field goals made (278). Raven Johnson is now fifth in assists (188) and also moved into third in career assists (598). Tessa Johnson is fifth in made 3-pointers in a season (83), and Madina Okot is fourth in single-season defensive rebounds (242).

• Monday’s game will be the last home game for seniors Maryam Dauda, Raven Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson and Madina Okot. The longest tenured of the group, Johnson has led the Gamecocks to a 65-1 record in Colonial Life Arena in her four seasons.

By the Numbers
3 – This season’s team is just the third in program history to score at least 3,000 points in a season (3.037).

7 –  Senior Raven Johnson needs seven points to reach 1,000 in her career.

The Southern Cal Series
The Gamecocks have won all four games in the series, including the three games in the Dawn Staley era. The two teams originally played a home-and-home series in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and they are currently in a two-year neutral site series The Real SC.

The first game of that series was on Nov. 15, 2025, with  South Carolina claiming a 69-52 win in Los Angeles. The Gamecocks withstood hot shooting from the Trojans in the first quarter to take a two-point lead into halftime. From there they stretched their lead with 48.6 percent shooting in the second half. Joyce Edwards led all scorers with 17 points, and three Gamecocks finished with double-digit rebounds, with point guard Raven Johnson (11) joining Edwards (10) and Madina Okot (15).

Defensive Demon
For four seasons, senior point guard Raven Johnson has turned the nation’s and SEC’s best players into a shell of themselves with her defensive pressure The 2026 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, who is on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List for the first time in her career, changes everything an opponent can accomplish just by her presence on the court.

Per Synergy, Johnson is second in the nation in defensive impact, lowering the Gamecocks’ points allowed to an SEC-best 10.9 points per 100 possessions. When she is on the court, ranked opponents are scoring 0.764 points per possession compared to 0.842 when she is on the bench. That group of teams shoots 39.7 percent when Johnson is on the court versus  43.4 percent without her, and those numbers are more dramatic from 3-point range where Johnson’s presence holds teams to just 28.8 percent when they shoot 38.6 percent when she’s off the court.

As the primary defender against the 13 other All-SEC selections she guarded, Johnson allowed just 0.663 points per possession and 32.4 percent shooting compared to the 0.809  points per possession and 41.5 percent they posted on other Gamecock defenders.

Efficiency Report
A focus for South Carolina is efficiency – creating its own and disrupting its opponents’. They are among the best in the nation at both – ranking top five in the nation in field goal percentage (.508) and sixth field goal percentage defense (.345). The Gamecocks lead the nation in offensive points per possession (1.222) and are second in defensive points per possession (0.718), per Synergy.

Individually, three Gamecocks are among the SEC’s top 10 percentage shooters. Joyce Edwards leads the group at 59.3 percent, which ranks among the nation’s top 15, and Madina Okot is just behind at 57.9 percent to rank among the top 20 in the country. Ta’Niya Latson’s career-best 49.5 percent accuracy rounds out the trio of SEC leaders.

From 3-point range, the Gamecocks are among the nation’s top 10 with a .367 percentage. Tessa Johnson is among the nation’s top 10 with her SEC-best 44.4 percent accuracy, including a 43.8 mark against ranked opponents. Her 2.5 made 3s per game include seven games of at least four made 3s.