The South Carolina women's basketball team will no longer play a home-and-home series with Brigham Young University (BYU), USC announced Friday.
The move came following an incident at a volleyball match between Duke University and BYU on Friday, Aug. 26. After the game a Duke volleyball player reported that racial slurs were directed at her from a BYU fan.
“As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff. The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home, and I don’t feel that this is the right time for us to engage in this series,” head coach Dawn Staley said in a press release.
The fan, who was banned indefinitely from all BYU athletic venues, was seated in the student section but is not a student at BYU, according to a report from ESPN.
Despite a swift response from the BYU athletics department, the Gamecocks and Staley now turn their attention to finding a new opponent for the Nov. 17 season opener at Colonial Life Arena.
South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner said that the series will be cancelled, removing BYU from the Gamecocks' 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 season schedules.
“Dawn and I have discussed her thoughts on the situation. I support Dawn and all of our coaches in their right to schedule games and opponents that are best for their teams,” Tanner said in a press release.
This is a developing story.