Why Gamecocks say road to the SEC championship was harder than in years past
Yellow, blue and white confetti fell from the ceiling of Bon Secours Wellness Arena Sunday evening. The victorious South Carolina women’s basketball team stood there, center stage, and let that confetti rain down on them.
It’s not the first time the Gamecocks have been in that spot (it’s the ninth to be exact) and it likely won’t be the last.
But for South Carolina, this year’s title meant a bit more.
“This one’s probably harder because you have that chip on our shoulder,” Raven Johnson told The State.
Last year South Carolina improved to 32-0 with a win in the SEC Tournament championship game over LSU. But things weren’t perfect this year. South Carolina lost three games which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t much. But standards are different for the Gamecocks.
“It just means a lot because of our journey here,” Te-Hina Paopoa said of the championship. “We endured some losses and knowing that our journey wasn’t perfect, like last year, it just means so much.”
With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC things were harder this year, Johnson said.
“Just adding Texas and Oklahoma, you cannot take a day off in the SEC,” Johnson said. “I think that tells you about our conference. Last year, I feel like there were top teams, and then a little mediocre teams, then a drop. But this year, every team in the SEC is good. I feel like that tells you about the power of the SEC. A lot of SEC teams are going to be really dominant in March Madness.”
Before the SEC Tournament even started coach Dawn Staley said she knew it would be “by far” the hardest one she’s coached in. Yet, South Carolina still won all three games it played in the tournament by 21, 18 and 19 points.
“The stress levels were up for the three games,” Staley said. “We’re playing some of our best basketball. We didn’t know how it would turn out. I thought we put our habits out there on the floor for three games. It wasn’t perfect basketball, but I think we were in it for longer stretches, the way that we needed to play in order for us to win. It produced some really quality wins against, like, stiff competition.”
Even though there were stretches of this season Paopao that were tough, the Gamecocks never wavered.
“It was harder but at the same time, we still have that connectivity, the togetherness, the unity,” Paopao told The State. “I’m just really proud of our team and how our journey hasn’t been the best, we’ve had ups and downs, we’ve always been constant with each other. So I’m just really proud that we’re hitting our stride at the perfect time.”
Victory on Sunday might have also been a little bit sweeter for the Gamecocks for a few other more personal reasons.
South Carolina and Texas split the regular season series 1-1 with the Gamecocks winning in Columbia and the Longhorns winning in Austin. Both teams finished 15-1 in SEC play and South Carolina was given the No. 1 seed in the tournament after winning a coin flip tie breaker.
“It was personal, and we knew that we wanted to get our lick back,” Paopao said of the win. “We knew that we didn’t win against Texas at Texas, and that we just came up short. We knew that we wanted to get our win tonight.”
There’s also the fact that most of the team wasn’t able to celebrate to the full extent after winning the SEC Championship game last year.
South Carolina’s win in 2024 was marred by a scuffle at the end of the game with LSU that resulted in several ejections including all of South Carolina’s bench, sans Sania Feagin and Te-Hina Paopao.
As a result, those players were in the locker room for the trophy presentation. But rest assured, everyone got in on the festivities this year.
“Last year we didn’t, unfortunately, celebrate with everyone,” Paopao said. “So for them to celebrate with us this year and experience the confetti at SEC, I’m just really proud and really happy.”
This week’s new AP Top 25
- UCLA (16 first place votes)
- South Carolina (9)
- UConn (7)
- Southern Cal
- Texas
- TCU
- Duke
- Notre Dame
- NC State
- LSU
- Oklahoma
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
- Baylor
- Ohio State
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma State
- Maryland
- Kansas State
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- Creighton
- Florida State
- South Dakota State
- Ole Miss
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
