The latest on Ta’Niya Latson, Alicia Tournebize as No. 3 Gamecocks prep for Arkansas
Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks are back on the road this week for SEC play. South Carolina (15-1, 2-0 SEC) is traveling to take on Arkansas (11-6, 0-2 SEC) on Thursday.
The Gamecocks are coming off a gutsy 74-63 win at Florida on Sunday.
Both ESPN Analytics and college basketball analytics site BartTorvik.com give South Carolina a 99% chance to win Thursday’s game.
While experts are expecting it to be a blowout, there are still a few interesting storylines headed into the game.
Updates on Alicia Tournebize and Ta’Niya Latson
Will French signee Alicia Tournebize make her highly anticipated debut for South Carolina on Thursday? And will Ta’Niya Latson make her return from injury?
It doesn’t look like it.
“No, probably not,” Staley told local reporters Wednesday. “They’re ramping up though, which is good.”
Both Tournebize and Latson were seen participating Wednesday in the final moments of practice that were open to media viewing.
Tournebize arrived in Columbia from France 10 days after USC announced she had signed with the team on Jan. 1. She did not play in South Carolina’s most recent game against Florida last weekend, but she did travel with the Gamecocks to Gainesville. Last week, Staley said they were still finalizing all the necessary paperwork and letting Tournebize get acclimated before she was able to probably “hit the floor” sometime this week.
Tournebize has been adjusting “great” and South Carolina is hopeful to get her in a game “soon,” Staley said.
“She’s been a pro, so she understands what she needs to do to come in here, “ Staley said. “Get in the weight room, get a little treatment, come out here and practice a little bit. She hasn’t practiced a whole lot. We’ll continue to ramp her up. We don’t want to just throw her out there; it’s unfair to her to do that. But at some point, hopefully soon, we’ll get her out there in the game.”
Latson has missed South Carolina’s first two conference games with an ankle sprain.
She left South Carolina’s penultimate non-conference game against Providence on Dec. 28 early and has not played since. Latson wore a boot on her left foot during South Carolina’s SEC opener against Alabama but did not have a boot on Thursday when the Gamecocks were in Gainesville. Staley has described Latson’s status as day-to-day.
The SEC injury report, which will officially designate whether Tournebize and Latson are available to play vs Arkansas, will be released Wednesday night and updated Thursday before the game.
Maryam Dauda returns to Arkansas
Senior forward Maryam Dauda will be making her first appearance back in Bud Walton Arena since her sophomore year.
Dauda, a Bentonville, Arkansas product, started her career with the Razorbacks. She played 68 games across two seasons at Arkansas before transferring to South Carolina last year. Dauda started 33 of those games with the Razorbacks, all coming in her sophomore year (2023-24).
In her time with Arkansas, Dauda averaged 6.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Dauda has already played against her former team once since joining the Gamecocks. Last season, South Carolina beat Arkansas 95-55 at home. In that game, Dauda played 14 minutes (a season-high at the time) and nearly notched a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds.
After averaging 6.4 minutes per game last season with USC, Dauda is up to 13 minutes this year. She’s scoring 3.1 points per game and averaging 3.9 rebounds.
Opponent scout
Arkansas is 11-6 (0-2) to start the Kelsi Musick era.
Musick replaced Mike Neighbors as head coach of the Razorbacks this year after Neighbors’ eight-year tenure (which included two NCAA Tournament trips) came to an end following a 10-22 record last season.
Arkansas played just two high-major opponents, Texas Tech and SMU, in its non-conference slate and lost both games. The Razorbacks opened their SEC slate with games against Vanderbilt to Alabama and lost the two matchups by an average of 23 points.
The Razorbacks are No. 10 in the country with 45.18 rebounds per game. Arkansas is No. 5 in the SEC with 22.9 3-point attempts per game and No. 6 with 7.6 3-point makes per game. Musick’s squad is one of the better free-throw shooting teams in the conference. Outside of that, they generally rank in the bottom half of the SEC in most stats.
“They’re spreading you out,” Staley said of Arkansas. “Do they shoot 3s? Yes, they shoot 3s. But I think their MO is to control the paint through the threat of shooting 3. So, we just have to guard both. We have to protect the paint. Probably got to speed them up a little bit, make them play faster than they want to play, and then rebound the ball.”
Senior guard Taleyah Jones, who was a two-time All-Summit League player at Oral Roberts under Musick, leads Arkansas with 17.2 points per game. Another player to watch is freshman guard Bonnie Deas. The 5-foot-9 Australian is averaging a double-double with 10.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.
Series history
South Carolina has beaten Arkansas in the last 10 matchups. Arkansas’ last win in the series was in 2019, but before that the last time the Razorbacks beat the Gamecocks was 2012.
The Gamecocks hold a 28-18 advantage in the all-time series and South Carolina is 21-4 over Arkansas since Staley took over as head coach.
South Carolina is 14-5 at home against Arkansas but is just 10-10 on the road. Granted, the last loss South Carolina had at Arkansas was in 2012.
How to watch South Carolina vs Arkansas
- Who: No. 3 South Carolina vs Arkansas
- When: Thursday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
- Where: Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas
- TV: SEC Network+ (Brett Dolan, Matt Zimmerman)
- Radio: 106.7 FM, SiriusXM Channel 161 or 191 (Brad Muller
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 12:35 PM.
