The No. 2 South Carolina women's basketball team will host No. 5 LSU this Friday as College GameDay returns to Columbia for the top-five Southeastern Conference matchup.
The Gamecocks enter looking to defend its No. 1 spot in the SEC coming off a 41-point win against the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners at home Sunday afternoon. During Sunday's win, freshman forward Joyce Edwards led the Gamecocks with 17 points .
"Over a 40-minute period, we wanted to just make it really hard for them to get in any rhythm, any just fluid movements," head coach Dawn Staley said following the win over the Sooners.
Sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley also put up 15 points and a career-high seven assists alongside hitting a 30-foot three-pointer at the first quarter buzzer in the win over the Sooners. The key moment early on set the stage for her performance throughout the rest of the game.
"She played solid defense. She took really good shots ... the long threes," Staley said. "(Fulwiley) is being more intentional about making the right basketball play."
Winning 13 straight games since its loss against UCLA in November, Staley has the utmost confidence in her team as it prepares to take on LSU from the way they play together and prepare for these important games.
The Tigers are coming into the matchup fresh off an 80-63 victory against the Florida Gators in Gainesville, FL.
LSU senior guard Aneesah Morrow put up 20 points in the Tigers' most recent game, along with 10 rebounds and two assists. Morrow is one of the nation's leading scorers averaging 18.7 points per game and became the eighth woman in NCAA Division I history with 2,500 career points and 1,500 career rebounds.
While both South Carolina and LSU contain talented players throughout their rosters, the teams are also led by two national championship-winning head coaches. Staley, who has coached the Gamecocks since 2008, has three national championships and six Final Four appearances under her belt with the program, as well as ranking in the AP Top 25 every week since 2012. LSU head coach Kim Mulkey has won four national championships — three at Baylor and one at LSU — in her coaching career.
The Gamecocks hold a 16-game winning streak against the Tigers, winning by only 7 points the last time the teams met in the championship of the 2024 SEC Tournament.
In the championship game, multiple ejections occurred when then-senior center Kamilla Cardoso shoved then-sophomore guard Flau'jae Johnson to the ground, emptying both benches.
"When you're playing in championship games like this in our league, things get heated," Staley said." No bad intentions. Their emotions got so far ahead of them that sometimes these things happen."
LSU has been undefeated so far in its season, with Johnson, averaging 20 points per game with 6.1 rebounds, posing as a threat to the Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks have been without junior forward Ashlyn Watkins since its victory against Mississippi State, where she tore her ACL, sidelining her for the rest of the season. As South Carolina competes in a challenging conference, Watkin's absence can be felt. Watkins averaged 7.2 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds per game throughout 14 appearances.
"I think sometimes when you lose a player, you gain in other areas," Staley said. "Of course, we lose Ashlyn's ability to shot block, and Ashlyn's ability to defend and her ability to rebound and score...but we didn't present like we don't have enough to compete at a really high level. We as a coaching staff, we never really harp on it."
Coming off a season-high 101 points, Staley commended her team for playing great, hard basketball, just the way that she had envisioned.
Navigating into a difficult week, the victory against Oklahoma will help the team feel good about playing these next few games, Fulwiley said.
"For me, personally, it feels good. I mean, I like playing good because it motivates me to play even better and outdo myself. And as a team, I feel like we all just motivate each other to want to do good," Fulwiley said. "We never pout when we don't play good, we just motivate the next person, motivate the next teammate, and that works out in our favor a lot."
Senior forward Sania Feagin said that the team's depth allows it to dominate through each game.
"We have a lot of five stars on the bench as well, so when the first five get tired, we have five more coming in ready to play hard and give it their all," Feagin said.
The Gamecocks will host the Tigers at Colonial Life Arena on Friday evening at 5 p.m. The game will broadcast live on ESPN.
Correction: South Carolina's matchup vs No. 5 LSU was moved due to heavy snow in the Baton Rouge, LA area. College GameDay will no longer be a part of the broadcast due to the moved date.