Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks did not just win on Sunday — they made a statement. Behind 21 points from Joyce Edwards and a commanding double-double from Madina Okot, the Gamecocks dismantled Ole Miss 85-48 to clinch their 10th SEC regular-season title, continuing what is now inarguably the most sustained dynasty in women’s college basketball.
A Fast Start, Then Total Domination
Ole Miss deserves credit for one thing: they showed up and competed in the opening quarter. The Rebels kept the game reasonably close in those early minutes, offering a brief glimpse of resistance before the inevitable unraveled in spectacular fashion. What followed was not just a win — it was a systematic, suffocating dismantling of a team that simply had no answer for what South Carolina brought to the floor.
The Gamecocks went on a 12-2 run in the second quarter to seize complete control of the game, and then — in case anyone thought Ole Miss might recover — they emphatically closed the door with a 15-3 run in the third quarter to turn the contest into a blowout. By the time the fourth quarter arrived, the result had long been decided. This was not a game that hung in the balance. This was a program asserting its will.
The Numbers That Tell the Story
The statistics from the middle two quarters of this game are the kind that define just how total South Carolina’s dominance was. The Gamecocks held Ole Miss to just nine points in both the second and third quarters — a staggering defensive achievement that speaks to the Gamecocks’ length, athleticism, and defensive discipline.
During that brutal 20-minute stretch, Ole Miss shot a deeply troubling 6-of-34 from the field — just 17.6% — while committing 10 turnovers. To put that in proper context: Ole Miss is a program led by one of the most gifted scorers in the SEC, yet for nearly half of the game, they were rendered almost completely incapable of putting the ball in the basket.
The Rebels went seven minutes without a basket in the second quarter and five minutes without a basket in the third. Those are not just bad stretches — those are the kinds of droughts that break a team’s spirit, expose their fatigue, and allow an elite opponent to impose their agenda without opposition. South Carolina exploited every single one of those minutes.
Fatigue Was Ole Miss’s Enemy Before Tip-Off
Context matters in understanding why this game deteriorated so quickly for the Rebels, and fairness demands that it be acknowledged. Ole Miss came into Sunday’s contest playing its fourth game in just eight days — a grueling stretch that would test any roster, regardless of depth or talent. By the time the Gamecocks turned up the defensive pressure in the second quarter, Ole Miss was, in the words of the coverage, “already running on fumes.”
When South Carolina’s relentless defense began forcing turnovers and extending possessions, the Rebels simply had nothing left in reserve. The tank, as was noted plainly, “was completely empty.” This does not diminish what South Carolina accomplished — in fact, it may enhance it. Championship teams do not wait for opponents to be healthy and rested before they apply pressure. They take what the game gives them, and on Sunday, the Gamecocks took everything.
The Cotie McMahon Puzzle
Perhaps the most analytically striking subplot of Sunday’s game was the near-total neutralization of Ole Miss star Cotie McMahon, one of the most dangerous scorers in the SEC. McMahon entered the game averaging 20.7 points per game — a figure that demands defensive attention and game-planning from any coaching staff. South Carolina did not merely slow her down. They shut her down entirely.
McMahon finished the afternoon with just two points on 0-of-9 shooting — a performance that, on its face, looks like one of the worst days of her college career. She did contribute six assists and two rebounds, showing her basketball IQ and willingness to facilitate even when her own shot was not falling. But two points from a 20-point-per-game scorer is a testament not just to McMahon’s difficult night, but to the quality and preparation of South Carolina’s defensive scheme.
By the fourth quarter, Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin made the pragmatic decision to sit McMahon and her fellow exhausted starters entirely. With the game long out of reach and the physical toll of a brutal schedule evident, there was no reason to risk further wear on her most important players. It was the right call — but it also served as the final, visible acknowledgment that this game had ended as a contest well before the final buzzer.
Edwards and Okot: Carrying the Banner
While South Carolina’s defense dismantled Ole Miss, it was the offensive contributions of Joyce Edwards and Madina Okot that provided the fuel. Edwards’ 21-point performance was assertive and efficient — the kind of output that a team riding a championship moment needs from its key contributors. Okot’s double-double, meanwhile, demonstrated exactly the kind of interior presence and rebounding tenacity that makes this Gamecocks team so difficult to contain from multiple positions simultaneously.
Together, their performances encapsulated what makes South Carolina so challenging to game-plan against: they do not rely on a single superstar to carry the load. They distribute the burden, elevate different contributors on different nights, and build their advantages through collective excellence rather than individual brilliance alone.
Ten Titles in Thirteen Years: The Weight of Legacy
When the final buzzer sounded and the celebration began, the magnitude of the moment deserved to be fully absorbed. Ten SEC regular-season titles in 13 seasons. Five consecutive. A program that, since 2014, has claimed either the regular-season or tournament crown — or both — every single year save for 2019.
These are not numbers that happen by accident. They are the product of an institutional standard that Dawn Staley has built, maintained, and elevated over more than a decade of coaching at the highest level. They reflect recruiting, player development, culture, and the kind of sustained excellence that separates good programs from historically great ones.
Sunday’s 85-48 victory over Ole Miss was not the most glamorous game of the season. It was not a close thriller or a come-from-behind story. It was something perhaps more revealing: a dominant, professional, businesslike performance from a team that knew exactly what was at stake, and delivered with ruthless efficiency.
That, in many ways, is the most South Carolina thing imaginable.
