South Carolina to Host Providence in First-Ever Matchup to Close Non-Conference Slate
South Carolina women’s basketball is set to close out its 2025-26 non-conference schedule with a home showdown against Providence College on December 28 in Columbia, the Friars officially announced.
This marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs, though there’s a familiar link connecting them: Providence assistant coach Valerie Nainima, who played for Dawn Staley at South Carolina from 2009 to 2011.
“She was a special player,” Staley has said of Nainima in past interviews. As a junior with the Gamecocks, Nainima averaged 17.0 points per game and shot 35.8% from beyond the arc, before a knee injury limited her during her senior year. Originally from Fiji, Nainima transferred to South Carolina after starting her collegiate career at Long Island University. Her coaching journey since has included stops at Fordham and Michigan before landing at Providence.
The Friars are coming off a 13–19 (6–12 Big East) campaign, finishing seventh in the Big East standings.
With the addition of Providence, South Carolina now has seven confirmed non-conference matchups for the upcoming season:
- Nov. 15: at Southern Cal
- Dec. 4: at Louisville (ACC/SEC Challenge)
- Dec. 18: at South Florida
- Dec. 28: vs Providence
The Gamecocks will also participate in the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week, facing a stacked field including Duke, Texas, and UCLA.
The annual in-state rivalry game with Clemson has yet to be officially confirmed, though it’s expected to return, which would bring the total to eight non-conference games. That leaves approximately six more games for South Carolina to finalize before the complete non-conference schedule is announced.
Meanwhile, the long-running home-and-home series with UConn, which began in 2015, concluded with last season’s matchup. No new deal has been reached to extend the series.
