Rewind: 4 meetings for USC-Texas last season set stage for this year’s showdowns
Two heavyweights of the college women’s basketball world are, once again, set to duke it out on the national stage.
No. 2 South Carolina (17-1, 4-0 SEC) will host No. 4 Texas (18-1, 3-1 SEC) on Thursday at Colonial Life Arena. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.
The two teams have already played once this season, during the Players Era Championship event in Las Vegas. The game went down to the wire and a last-second shot from Rori Harmon gave Texas the 66-64 win.
South Carolina and Texas have gotten quite familiar with one another in the last year. Thursday’s game will be the sixth matchup between the two schools in just over a year (369 days, to be exact).
Here’s a bit about the last five matchups, four of which came last season.
Last year was a historic first
South Carolina is no stranger to playing a team multiple times in one season. No team is a stranger to it, really, as it’s pretty common to play a conference opponent twice each year.
Playing a team three times in a season isn’t too uncommon, but things need to shake out a certain way for it to happen, whether that be in a conference tournament or March Madness.
Since the Dawn Staley era began in the 2008-09 season, South Carolina has played the same team three times in one season 14 times. That team was most often Kentucky, who the Gamecocks have matched up with three times in a season on four different occasions since Staley took over.
South Carolina has faced more than one team three times in a season twice during the Staley era. The Gamecocks played Mississippi State, Kentucky and Georgia three times each during the 2016-17 season and played Ole Miss and Kentucky three times each in the 2021-22 season.
In the last 25 years (since the 2000-01 season), USC has played a team three times in a season on 16 occasions.
But playing a team four times in one season? It had never happened until South Carolina played Texas that many times last season, according to Sports-Reference’s available data that dates back to the 1981-82 season.
Round I: South Carolina dominates Texas in Columbia
The first matchup between the two programs started with a dominant win for the Gamecocks. South Carolina welcomed Texas to Colonial Life Arena and sent the Longhorns back to Austin with a 67-50 loss.
South Carolina had one of its best games of the year on both sides of the ball in the win.
Although 67 points aren’t that much, South Carolina was efficient from the field. The Gamecocks shot 71.4% in the first half before ending the game with a 51% clip. Te-Hina Paopao and Chloe Kitts led with 11 points each and Joyce Edwards was right behind them with 10 points. Both Sania Feagin and Raven Johnson flirted with double-doubles.
The Gamecocks held Texas to a season-low in points (50) and shooting percentage (27.8%) in the game. Texas’ star Madison Booker was limited to just seven points on 3-for-19 shooting.
Round II: Texas punches back, beats South Carolina in Austin
After a loss in January, Texas evened things out a month later back home in Austin.
Texas disrupted South Carolina and got out to an early lead. South Carolina used a big third quarter to get back in the game but couldn’t close the deal late and lost 66-62. The loss snapped South Carolina’s 57-game winning streak in regular-season SEC games that dated back to December 2021.
A quote from Paopao described the loss for the Gamecocks best: “Coach got on us, saying that we got punked.”
Booker scored 20 points (on 7-for-22 shooting) for Texas and had 11 rebounds after being shut down in the previous matchup. The Gamecocks also had no answer for 6-foot-6 Kyla Oldacre off the bench — she scored 13 points and brought in six rebounds.
“She’s a very experienced post player. I thought she brought it all home for them,” Staley said after the game.
Texas’ win created a three-way tie atop the SEC standings between South Carolina, Texas and LSU.
Round III: South Carolina beats Texas for an SEC title
Both Texas and South Carolina finished the regular season as 15-1 and SEC champs. The result of Round II led to a nationally televised coin flip tie-breaker for the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
South Carolina caught a break and won that coin flip.
The Gamecocks breezed through their matchups in the SEC Tournament, beating Vanderbilt and Oklahoma by an average of 19.5 points. Texas beat Ole Miss and got a close win over LSU to set up the rubber match with South Carolina in the SEC Tournament title game.
After a close game in Austin, some thought fans would be in for another back-and-forth game in Greenville. Those fans thought wrong.
South Carolina won its ninth SEC Tournament title after beating Texas 64-45. The Gamecocks trailed at the end of the first quarter but used a big second-quarter push (outscoring the Longhorns 21-6 in the period) to generate some momentum and add cushion to the lead.
Texas’ 45 points were a new season low (the previous low was set in January at Colonial Life Arena) and tied for the least amount of points ever scored in an SEC women’s title game.
South Carolina was led by Chloe Kitts (15 points), Tessa Johnson (14), Joyce Edwards (11) and Sania Feagin (11). The Gamecocks limited Booker to 10 points and Texas as a whole to a 29.6% shooting clip in the game.
Round IV: South Carolina beats Texas in Final Four
Both South Carolina and Texas were No. 1 seeds in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks and Longhorns were on the same side of the bracket, coming out of the Birmingham 1 and Birmingham 2 Regionals, respectively. That meant there was a chance for one final rematch in the Final Four in Tampa, Florida — but only if both teams made it there.
At that point the script wrote itself, though. South Carolina and Texas both advanced out of the Birmingham Regionals, setting up Round IV in the Final Four. But by that point, the Gamecocks’ had Texas’ number.
South Carolina beat Texas 74-57 to advance to the national championship game (which they would ultimately lose).
Paopao led the team with 14 points but a boost of the bench from Joyce Edwards gave South Carolina what it needed for the win.
Edwards — who had struggled through that point in the tournament, only totaling 15 points in the prior three games — scored 13 points and led the Gamecocks with 11 rebounds and six assists. She became the first player in at least 25 years to have 10-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and five-plus assists off the bench in a Final Four game, per ESPN.
In 2025-26: Round V and Round VI … maybe more?
There is a very real possibility that South Carolina and Texas play four times again this season.
The conclusion of Thursday’s game will mark two matchups between the two teams already this season.
South Carolina and Texas won’t play again in the regular season, but a potential matchup in the SEC Tournament will loom come March. If the two teams do play one another, whether it be for an SEC title or a spot in the title game, it’ll be the third matchup this season.
A potential fourth game between South Carolina and Texas would have to come in the NCAA Tournament. The odds of it happening are slim, as it all depends where in the bracket both teams are placed on top of the fact both teams have to win what would likely be several games.
But last year’s Final Four matchup between the Gamecocks and Longhorns is evidence that anything can happen once March Madness rolls around.
