The moment Coach Yo knew Ole Miss was in trouble vs. South Carolina
South Carolina women’s basketball clinched its fifth straight SEC regular season championship on Sunday after shellacking No. 17 Ole Miss 85-48 at home.
The Gamecocks dominated from start to finish in the game and only trailed for 17 seconds at one point early in the first quarter. South Carolina led by just four at the end of the first quarter but built up to nearly a 20-point lead in the second quarter before eventually securing a 37-point win.
When did Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin (aka Coach Yo) know the Rebels had let the game slip away? The second South Carolina forward Madina Okot started nailing shots from 3-point range.
“When I saw her start making threes, I was like, ‘...it’s over for us,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It’s one thing to have to battle with her around the basket. When she started looking like Steph Curry, I was like, we might as well pack it up.”
Okot drilled two 3-pointers in the first half Sunday. Okot’s first 3 put the Gamecocks up 27-20 in the second quarter. Her second 3-pointer came just before halftime and put South Carolina up 41-23. The 6-foot-6 forward added another 3-pointer just after the start of the fourth quarter and increased South Carolina’s lead to 71-37.
The surprise from McPhee-McCuin on Okot’s 3- pointers comes from her limited success beyond the arc up until this year. Last season (her first playing college hoops in the USA), Okot didn’t even attempt a 3-pointer. But this year with the Gamecocks she’s attempted 15 and has made eight.
Okot’s 3-point attempts had been relatively spread out this season, but she’s now made multiple threes in back-to-back games. Okot herself said the success from beyond the arc just boils down to an increased confidence.
“I’m getting much [more] confident…I’m just being me,” Okot said.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley has said throughout the year that Okot practices shooting 3s all the time. So while it may be a surprise to some that Okot is now shooting 53.3% from 3-point range, Staley isn’t .
“We work them pretty much every day,” Staley said. “...You want to put players in positions where they’re comfortable and it fits. Some people can be comfortable taking threes, but they’re not accurate. For Madina, she’s pretty accurate. She was accurate when she first got here, and I didn’t really think anything of it, besides, it’s a big that wants to shoot threes.”
Okot finished with her 18th double-double vs Ole Miss after scoring 17 points and notching 10 rebounds. It’s the latest in a string of strong performances for the Mississippi State transfer who was removed from the starting lineup for a few games earlier this month after a slump.
“I just think they did a great job giving her confidence,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I always thought she was super talented. I remember at Mississippi State, I was scared straight about her. It makes a difference when you’re around the level of type players she’s around. When you’re around championship players you start to move like that and embody that identity. And I think she’s doing that. She always had all of this skill, it’s just really being brought out because now she’s with some really good players.”
South Carolina star guard Ta’Niya Latson said the Gamecocks know they’re going to win the game when Okot has a dominant game like she did against Ole Miss.
As for the 3-pointers, expect there to be more from Okot in the future. The more confident Okot gets from beyond the arc, the more Staley and her staff want to put her in a position to take the 3-point shots more often.
“We have been trying to incorporate more and more opportunities,” Staley said. “Every time that she’s our trail, she reverses the ball, and she never really thinks about shooting the three. As she starts shooting more, I told her, just kind of take a look at it. Take a peek at it, if you got your feet under you, take some out there. Now she’s popping back off of screening and today we were a little bit more intentional about setting plays up for her to take them.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 5:59 PM.
