South Carolina’s women’s basketball team, ranked third nationally, will continue its road games with a matchup against Texas A&M on Monday, February 2. The game is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
The Gamecocks have maintained a strong offensive performance this season, averaging 88.7 points per game and converting 51.2 percent of their field goal attempts. On the road, they are scoring an average of 88.4 points with a shooting percentage of 49.9.
Fast break opportunities have been key to South Carolina’s offense, as the team ranks second in the nation with 22.1 fast break points per game—accounting for a quarter of their total scoring output.
Rebounding has also contributed to the team’s success; South Carolina is ninth in the country in rebounding margin at +10.8 and twelfth in rebounds per game with an average of 43.6.
From beyond the arc, South Carolina is tenth nationally in three-point field goal percentage at .376, including five games where they shot at least fifty percent from long range. Junior Tessa Johnson leads the SEC in three-point accuracy at forty-six percent, ranking seventh nationally.
Sophomore forward Joyce Edwards stands out both offensively and defensively within the Southeastern Conference (SEC). She is third in league scoring at twenty points per game and fourth in field goal percentage at .593. Nationally, she ranks seventeenth in scoring and sixteenth in shooting percentage.
Point guard Raven Johnson has averaged 12.3 points per SEC contest on 54.8 percent shooting while providing nearly four assists per game and maintaining a strong assist-to-turnover ratio. Off the bench, Maddy McDaniel contributes over three assists per game along with defensive efforts that include more than one steal per outing.
Freshman Ayla McDowell has recently contributed by averaging seven points on efficient shooting over her last two appearances.
The Gamecocks have outscored SEC opponents by nearly fifteen points per game inside the paint this season and have received significant contributions from their bench players who have averaged twenty-seven points over the last four games.
Historically, South Carolina holds a thirteen-to-four advantage over Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC during the 2012-13 season. In their most recent meeting on January 9, 2025, South Carolina secured a decisive ninety-to-forty-nine win led by Joyce Edwards’ double-double performance.
Head coach Dawn Staley continues to set program standards during her eighteenth season with South Carolina: “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.” The release notes that Staley is one of only two women’s basketball coaches to achieve multiple forty-game win streaks: “She is one of just two women’s basketball coaches to lead their teams to multiple forty-game win streaks in NCAA history with the Gamecocks’ program-record forty-three-game streak (2023-24) ranking seventh longest in NCAA history.”
Staley’s leadership extends beyond wins: “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.”
Defensively, South Carolina remains one of college basketball’s leading shot-blocking teams since winning its first national championship in 2017; this year they rank fifth nationally with an average of 6.3 blocks per game.
Center Madina Okot has emerged as a key contributor after transferring from Mississippi State: “After just starting the sport at seventeen years old…Madina Okot is becoming one of the most dominant centers in the sport.” This season she ranks among national leaders with thirteen double-doubles and averages over ten rebounds per contest.
