South Carolina’s women’s basketball team, ranked third nationally, will host No. 17 Ole Miss on Sunday, February 22, at noon in Columbia. The game will be broadcast on ESPN and follows the live airing of College Game Day from Colonial Life Arena.
Doors for the event open at 10:30 a.m., with early entry options available for select pass holders and a Chalk Talk session presented by Atkins Law starting at 10:05 a.m. The halftime show will feature the Sainted Trap Choir.
The Gamecocks are led by head coach Dawn Staley. Joyce Edwards leads South Carolina in scoring with an average of 20.1 points per game, while Madina Okot is the top rebounder with 10.7 rebounds per contest. Ole Miss is coached by Yolett McPhee-McCuin, with Cotie McMahon as their leading scorer (20.7 ppg) and Christeen Iwuala as their top rebounder (8.6 rpg).
South Carolina has been strong in the paint this season, outscoring opponents by an average of 24 points per game in that area, including significant margins against SEC teams and ranked opponents.
The team features two point guards among the most efficient nationally; Maddy McDaniel leads all players with a 5.50 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Raven Johnson ranks sixth at 3.33. As a unit, South Carolina stands twelfth nationwide in this metric.
Within SEC play, South Carolina leads in both field goal percentage (.478) and field goal percentage defense (.361). Joyce Edwards is recognized as a national player of the year candidate due to her offensive and defensive contributions—she ranks fourth in league scoring and third in field goal percentage while also being among conference leaders in rebounds, blocks, and steals.
Raven Johnson is noted as a defensive player of the year candidate; according to Synergy data, her presence reduces opponents’ scoring by nearly 11 points per 100 possessions—the best mark in the SEC—and she is fifth nationally for total player impact.
Senior center Madina Okot has recorded 17 double-doubles this season—four consecutively since returning to the starting lineup—and averages an SEC-best 10.67 rebounds per game.
From beyond the arc, South Carolina leads the SEC and is seventh nationally in three-point shooting percentage (.377), paced by Tessa Johnson’s conference-leading accuracy.
Senior Ta’Niya Latson has reached career-high efficiency marks this season across several shooting metrics.
Joyce Edwards has posted sixteen games with at least twenty points this season—a figure that ranks tenth all-time for single-season performances within the program.
Defensively, South Carolina has allowed just 56 points per game over its last five outings—including three against ranked teams—and averages over eighty-three points scored per home SEC matchup.
Historically, South Carolina holds a commanding lead over Ole Miss in their series (32-17 overall; 22-2 under Dawn Staley), having won their last twenty meetings. Their most recent encounter was on February 27, 2025; South Carolina won that contest behind strong second-half shooting performances from Chloe Kitts, Sania Feagin, and Joyce Edwards.
At home overall, South Carolina has achieved a .769 winning percentage across its history and an .876 mark under Coach Staley’s tenure. In Colonial Life Arena specifically—which has hosted them for twenty-four seasons—the team boasts four undefeated seasons since 2013-14.
Currently ranked No. 3 in both major polls (AP Poll and USA Today/WBCA Coaches’ Poll), South Carolina maintains one of college basketball’s longest active streaks inside the AP top ten—132 consecutive appearances dating back to preseason polls for the 2019-20 season—and ranks second nationally for consecutive weeks appearing anywhere within that poll category since December 2012.
The Gamecocks have consistently excelled at shot blocking since their first national championship win in 2017—leading or ranking near the top nationally every subsequent year both by blocks per game and block percentage metrics. This season they rank fifth nationwide with an average of six blocks per contest; Madina Okot leads individually among teammates with nearly two blocks each outing.
