Te-Hina Paopao

Awards

At South Carolina
All-America Second Team (2024 – USBWA)
All-America honorable mention (2024 – AP, WBCA; 2025 – AP, WBCA)
2x All-SEC Second Team (2024, 2025)
2x SEC Academic Honor Roll (2024, 2025)

At Oregon
2x All-Pac-12 First Team (2022, 2021)
All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention (2023)
Pac-12 All-Freshman Team (2021)

High School
McDonald’s All-America (2020)
California Gatorade Player of the Year (2020)
Cal-Hi Sports Ms Basketball Player of the Year (2020)

In the South Carolina Record Book

Career
2nd – 3-Point field goal percentage (.422 (147-348), 2024-25)
4th – Assist average in career SEC games (3.7 in 32 games, 2024-25)

Best 3-point field goal percentage in career NCAA Tournament games (.432 (22-51) in 12 games, 2024-25)

Season
3rd – 3-Point field goals made in a season (87 in 2023-24)
3rd – 3-Point field goal percentage in a season (.468 (87-186) in 2023-24)
1st – Games started in a season (39 in 2024-25)
1st – Games played in a season (39 in 2024-25)
5th – Assist-to-turnover ratio in a season of SEC games (2.70 in 2023-24)

Most 3-point field goals made in a single NCAA Tournament (14 in 6 games in 2024)
Best 3-point field goal percentage by a senior (.468 (87-186) in 2023-24)

Bio Information

Career Summary

• Earned all-conference honors every year of her career and added All-America status in 2024 and 2025
• Key player in Gamecocks’ historic undefeated National Championship run in 2023-24, just the fifth program in NCAA history to achieve the feat, and helped them back to the national title game in 2025
• Part of two SEC Regular-Season and two SEC Tournament championship teams
• Led the nation in 3-point percentage (.468) in 2023-24, becoming the second player in program history to lead the NCAA in a statistical category … closed her South Carolina career with a .422 3-point field goal percentage to rank second in program history
• Scored her 1,000^th career point against Clemson (Nov. 16, 2023)
• Was the sixth pick in the second round of the 2025 WNBA Draft, selected by the Atlanta Dream

Graduate Year (2024-25)

• Helped guide the Gamecocks back to the NCAA national championship game and their ninth SEC Regular-Season and SEC Tournament titles in program history … starting every game of the season
• Picked up All-America and Second-Team All-SEC honors for the second-straight season behind 9.4 points per game on 44.4 percent shooting to go along with her 2.8 assists per game and 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio
• In SEC play, ranked fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.29) and 12^th in assists per game (3.44)
• Strong defensively against Indiana (March 23) in NCAA Second Round, swatting a career-high four blocks and swiping back-to-back steals that keyed a 7-0 run in the third after the Hoosiers pulled within five
• Stuffed the stat sheet against #15/14 Kentucky (Mar. 2) with a team-high six assists, three steals and 13 points, including a clutch 3 to get the final 13-2 run going after the Wildcats had pulled within a point
• Finished with 13 points at Vanderbilt (Feb. 23) after scoring seven straight to open the game in addition to posting a team-high four assists and SEC career-high tying three steals
• Dropped four 3s in the first half against Florida (Feb. 13) en route to 14 points while handing out a team and new SEC career-high seven assists
• Launched a decisive 12-4 first-quarter run against #5/6 Texas (Jan. 12) with her first 3 of the game followed by a traditional three-point play
• Hit two of her three 3s against #8/9 Duke (Dec. 5) in the first quarter to lead the Gamecocks to a 16-point lead after the opening 10 minutes
• Swiped three steals against #15/15 Iowa State (Nov. 28), including picking up full-court pressure on the Cyclones point guards throughout the game
• Led the team with 18 points at #5/5 UCLA (Nov. 24), including perfect 4-of-4 shooting from 3-point range – the best perfect 3-point shooting game of her career
• Scored her Gamecock-career high with 23 points against #9/8 NC State (Nov. 10), including the first five points of the third quarter that pushed the Gamecock lead to double figures for the first time

Senior Year (2023-24)

• Critical part Gamecocks becoming just the fifth program in NCAA history to go undefeated and win a National Championship with a program-record 38 wins and ran SEC win streak to league-record 47 games, which is 10th-best conference win streak in NCAA history, earning All-America honors from multiple organizations
• Helped team to SEC regular-season and tournament championships, earning a spot on the All-SEC Second Team
• Earned All-America honors from multiple outlets and was a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award
• Led the nation with 46.8 percent 3-point shooting … in the SEC, ranked second in made 3s per game (2.35), fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.23) and ninth in assists per game (3.68) to earn Second-Team All-SEC honors … ranked second in the SEC in player offensive rating (123.9)
• Scored in double figures 24 times and led the team in assists 13 times in her 37 games played
• Against ranked opponents, ranked second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg) and assists (4.0 apg)
• Hit 3-of-4 from 3-point range in the National Championship game against #2/2 Iowa (Apr. 7), including two during a 12-5 run that closed the half with the Gamecocks leading by three after trailing by as many as 11 in the first quarter
• Tallied all 15 of her points against Georgia (Feb. 18) from behind the arc, including back-to-back 3s to double the lead to 12 with four minutes left in the game
• Scored 16 of her season-high 21 points against #11/9 UConn (Feb. 11) in the first half, finishing with five made 3s – the most by a Gamecock this season
• Scored all seven of her fourth-quarter points at #9/9 LSU (Jan. 25) during an 11-4 run that opened the period and gave the Gamecocks their first lead since the game’s opening minutes
• Bookended a 12-3 run that closed the first half at Missouri (Jan. 11) with a floater and a 3-pointer from the left wing that turned a four-point lead into a 13-point halftime advantage
• Added five to a 17-8 run against Mississippi State (Jan. 7) to extend the Gamecocks’ lead by 27 in the final quarter, finishing in double digits for the 11th time this season in 13 games
• Named Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase Game MVP with clutch shooting and solid defense against #11/7 Utah (Dec. 12), scoring seven of her 15 points in the fourth quarter and drawing an offensive foul with 56 seconds to play and the Utes within five … earning SEC Player of the Week and a spot on that week’s NCAA’s Starting 5
• Scored 10 of the team’s 20 third-quarter points at Duke (Dec. 3) on perfect shooting (3-3 FG, 2-2 3FG, 2-2 FT) to help hold off the Blue Devils’ rally
• Hit a pair of 3s in the third quarter at #24/24 North Carolina (Nov. 30), including one that gave the Gamecocks their first lead with 5:48 to go in the period … hit another from the top of the key with 5:34 left in the game to turn a two-point lead into a five-point advantage
• Hit a sterling 4-of-5 from 3-point range against Clemson (Nov. 16), including 3-of-3 accuracy in the first quarter, to record her fourth-straight 14-point game and reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career
• Exploded for nine of her 14 points against #14/11 Maryland in the second quarter with all three 3s coming in a 20-5 run over the final 3:43 of the period that tied the game and established a 12-point halftime lead
• Got the team off to a solid start in the season opener in Paris against #10/10 Notre Dame (Nov. 6) with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting, two assists and two steals in the opening quarter

Bio Information

At Oregon

• Grabbed All-Pac-12 honors all three seasons with the Ducks, including a pair of first-team selections
• Helped team to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2021 Sweet 16, and a spot in the 2023 WNIT quarterfinals
• Averaged 12.5 points, 3.6 assists over her three seasons, shooting 38.0 percent from 3-point range with 1.9 made 3s per game
• Led team in 3-point shooting as a junior (2022-23) with 2.3 made 3s per game on 42.4 percent shooting for the season, which ranked her second and fourth in the Pac-12, respectively
• Scored in double figures 51 times in her 77 career games, including 11 20-point outings

High School

• Ranked the No. 11 overall player in the Class of 2020
• Led La Jolla Country Day to No. 1 national ranking and 32-1 record as a senior (2019-20), averaging 22.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 43.3 assists and 3.3 steals
• Named McDonald’s All-America and selected for the Jordan Brand Classic
• Grabbed Cal-Hi Sports Ms Basketball and California Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2020, while repeating as Coast League Player of the Year and adding San Diego Section Player of the Year recognition
• Averaged 17.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.4 steals per game as a junior to lead LJCD to the regional championships and California State Final Four (2018-19)