No. 3 South Carolina WBB ends road trip with comfortable win over FGCU
The South Carolina women’s basketball team will return home for the holidays with a pair of wins.
Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks beat Florida Gulf Coast 105-43 on Saturday. The win capped an undefeated two-game road trip in the Sunshine State for South Carolina.
The Gamecocks will return to Columbia with a 12-1 record and a five-game win streak. South Carolina will get an eight-day break before returning to action on Dec. 28 at home against Providence.
Joyce Edwards paces the South Carolina offense
The star sophomore, once again, led South Carolina to victory.
Edwards scored 29 points against FGCU. That’s her eighth game this season where she’s scored 20 or more points. She also recorded 10 rebounds Saturday, marking her third double-double this season.
One more bucket would have given Edwards back-to-back games with at least 30 points scored. Instead, she’ll have to settle for a fourth consecutive game where she’s scored more than 25 points. Edwards is the first Gamecock to achieve that feat since Shannon Johnson did it in 1995-96.
Edwards’ performance was just the tip of the iceberg for South Carolina’s offense Saturday.
The Gamecocks scored more than 100 points for the sixth time this season. Forwards Madina Okot, Maryam Dauda and guard Ta’Niya Latson joined Edwards with double-digit scoring. Latson had 15 points as well as six assists and five rebounds. Dauda scored 12 points.
Okot finished with a double-double after scoring a career-high 27 points and bringing in 12 rebounds. All but four of Okot’s points came in the second half.
“I thought she did a great job of just coming out after a slow start and playing much, much better,” Staley said.
South Carolina shot 62.5% from the field and scored 74 points in the paint.
“Our offense is pretty good, just our transition offense is pretty good,” Staley said. “… Everybody’s a scoring threat, especially in our starting five, and they’re just starting to play well together.”
Stifling defense
Florida Gulf Coast got off to a hot start and led for the first 4:55 of the game.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, they would never regain that lead.
South Carolina held FGCU to a poor shooting afternoon. The Eagles shot just 26.9% from the field. Florida Gulf Coast made just eight field goals in the first half and six in the second. The Gamecocks held the Eagles to just one field goal in the third quarter.
“We disrupted them, and we had to,” Staley said. “You saw the start of the game, if we didn’t disrupt them, they got open shots. They could have made it interesting. So it’s our job to just try to disrupt, and we did a really good job of that. We had to prepare for that, because we knew that if they got streaky, and they got hot, they could make it interesting, especially getting the crowd involved.”
USC forced FGCU to turn over the ball 20 times and scored 34 points off those turnovers. South Carolina also out-rebounded FGCU 51-18.
Still no Agot Makeer
All 10 healthy Gamecocks were dressed and warmed up for the game Saturday, but South Carolina still played shorthanded.
Freshman guard Agot Makeer did not play against FGCU.
Makeer has been slowly working through concussion protocol in recent weeks and reportedly practiced Saturday. She has missed the last five games.
South Carolina WBB’s next four games
- Sunday: vs. Providence, noon (SEC Network)
- Jan. 1 vs. Alabama, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Jan. 4 at Florida, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 8 at Arkansas, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published December 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM.
