SEC champs again! Gamecocks dominate Ole Miss, lock up another conference crown
Colonial Life Arena will be adding at least one new banner to its rafters next season.
No. 3 South Carolina women’s basketball beat No. 17 Ole Miss 85-48 at home Sunday. The win clinched at least a share of the SEC regular-season title for Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks.
South Carolina (27-2, 13-1 SEC) clinched the title on the national stage. The game was televised on ESPN and the network’s pregame show “College GameDay” was broadcast live from Colonial Life Arena.
The Gamecocks have now won at least a share of the last five SEC regular-season championships. USC won them outright from 2022-2024 and shared last year’s regular season title with Texas.
South Carolina has now won 10 SEC regular-season championships in program history.
“I think it means a little bit more, because this league is so hard. And just the competitive nature of it, to have two games remaining and you know you’re going to share at least part of a championship, a regular season championship, in this climate,” Staley said. “Just super proud of our players for just being able to compete and win at the highest level in this league.”
The Gamecocks have two regular season games left and need just one more win to secure the title outright. The SEC Tournament is played starting March 4 in Greenville.
Game MVPs: Madina Okot and Joyce Edwards lead the way
The Gamecocks were, once again, paced by their starting forwards on Sunday.
Star sophomore Joyce Edwards started off hot and scored half of South Carolina’s 20 points in the first quarter. She finished with 21 points and six rebounds. Edwards has now scored 20 or more points in 17 games this year, including six out of the last seven.
Senior forward Madina Okot reached double-digits in the scoring column fast against Ole Miss. Okot scored 10 of her 17 total points in the first half. Okot also added 10 rebounds in the game to lock up her fifth-straight double-double.
Okot made her sixth, seventh and eighth career 3-pointers on Sunday. The 6-foot-6 forward had never made a 3-pointer before transferring to South Carolina but has now made multiple from long range in back-to-back games.
South Carolina defense locks down Ole Miss star
Ole Miss star forward Cotie McMahon had a quiet afternoon. McMahon came into the game No. 3 in scoring in the SEC at 20.7 points per game.
South Carolina limited McMahon to just two points.
She failed to make a field goal in the game. The two points she did score in that time frame came via free throws.
“She was the emphasis,” Staley said. “...What we wanted to do is just kind of just take her paint points away. Take her points away in transition, just kind of build a wall so she doesn’t get clean look. So she has to think about layers of defense before she sees daylight. Because once she sees daylight, she really is unguardable. I thought our players did a great job, Raven (Johnson), especially. The first line of that defense was so hard. That took her vision down, that occupied her dribble. Raven’s the very best at it, and she had backup today, because once she did get by, Cotie did see bodies.”
Ole Miss’ offensive struggles weren’t just limited to McMahon. The Rebels shot just 26.5% from the field as a team and scored just nine points in just the second and third quarter, respectively.
South Carolina limited Ole Miss to a season-low 48 points
A couple key stats
South Carolina was dominant in just about every facet of the game vs Ole Miss, but a few areas stood out.
The Gamecocks are at their best when they control the paint and did just that vs. the Rebels. South Carolina outscored Ole Miss in the paint 44-24. The Gamecocks also out-rebounded Ole Miss 46-37
South Carolina forced Ole Miss to turn the ball over 15 times in the game. While the Gamecocks had 14 turnovers , they were able to score 25 points off turnovers compared to the Rebels 10.
South Carolina WBB’s next games
- Thursday, Feb. 26 vs Missouri, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Sunday, March 1 at Kentucky, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Wednesday, March 4 - Sunday, March 8: SEC Tournament in Greenville, SC
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 1:51 PM.
