No. 3 Gamecocks coast to easy win over NC Central. Three takeaways
South Carolina women’s basketball cruised to an easy win on Sunday.
Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks beat NC Central 106-42 at home in Colonial Life Arena. South Carolina is now 9-1 on the year.
USC played lights out defense in the game and forced NC Central to turn the ball over 36 times . The Gamecocks needed three more turnovers to crack the top five in the program’s all-time record book.
South Carolina had four players reach double-digits in the scoring column and shot 50.7% as a team in the game. This is the fourth time this season the Gamecocks have scored more than 100 points in the game.
Gamecocks short-handed…again
South Carolina was, once again, playing down a few players in what has become an unfortunate norm this season.
The Gamecocks had just eight healthy players available against NC Central. Tessa Johnson was sick and did not play while Agot Makeer missed her second-straight game due to concussion protocol.
Luckily for USC, if there were a game to play with just eight players it would be Sunday’s matchup against an NC Central team that entered the matchup with a 1-7 record.
Staley had to get creative with the starting lineup with Tessa Johnson out. The Gamecocks went with a three forward lineup and started Raven Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson, Joyce Edwards, Adhel Tac and Madina Okot.
Staley said Tac “earned” the start (which was the first of her career).
Sophomore guard Maddy McDaniel was the first guard off the bench for the Gamecocks. When South Carolina had three guards on the floor (like usual), freshman wing Ayla McDowell typically occupied the spot Tessa Johnson would.
To make matters worse, Okot didn’t play in the second half. She was in the locker room to start the second half but eventually returned to the bench a few minutes into the third quarter. Staley said Okot is “still a little sick.”
“With our guard rotation we wanted to start a big,” Staley said. “We thought [Okot and Edwards] would play their normal minutes, so we can have a shorter rotation with the bigs. But that didn’t happen. We made it a half. And honestly [we wanted to see] what they look like playing together....I want them to play well together, so we can create the option for us and then slide Joyce over to the perimeter.”
Third quarter makes the difference
The Gamecocks’ 21-point lead at halftime was never in doubt of disappearing, but their third quarter performance closed the deal.
South Carolina outscored NC Central 28-2 in the third quarter to extend its lead to 74-27 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We all thought we kind of came out slow,” McDowell said. “...After every halftime, we all try to improve on our mistakes, what we did in the first half. I think we just executed very, very well after halftime. It’s just a team type of thing. We all know what we do. Coach kind of tells us what we didn’t see, and what we need to clean up, and then we just go do it.”
NC Central was 1-for-16 from the field in the third quarter and turned the ball over nine times. Meanwhile, South Carolina shot 66.7% from the field and made five 3-pointers in the third quarter.
Gamecock of the game: Ta’Niya Latson
Latson led the team with a season-high 32 points in the win over NC Central.
She was 11-for-18 from the field and hit a five 3-pointers in the game. She also tallied four rebounds and three steals. Latson scored 26 of her points in the second half and missed just one field goal after halftime.
“Chloe [Kitts] came up to me [at halftime], and she was like, ‘What’s going on?’ So I’m like, Nah, I can’t go out like that. I gotta tighten up,” Latson said of her second half performance. “But really just settling in. Tessa being out today kind of hit us hard, but, I mean, we all had to just tighten up. Coach told us to play together...we did that.”
Honorable mentions go to McDowell and Edwards for their efforts. McDowell played a season-high 27 minutes and finished with a career-high 16 points, hitting five 3-pointers.
“I’ve just been working on my three ball a lot,” McDowell said. “And I’m just trying to work on being ready when my time comes.”
Edwards finished with a double-double after scoring 25 points and bringing in 10 rebounds.
South Carolina WBB’s next four games
- Sunday, Dec. 14: vs Penn State, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Thursday, Dec. 18 at South Florida, TBA (ESPN+)
- Saturday, Dec. 20 at Florida Gulf Coast, 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
- Sunday, Dec. 28: vs Providence, 12 p.m. (SEC Network)
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM.
