When the final buzzer sounded on South Carolina women’s basketball’s 2024-25 season, what was left behind was not just a trophy case addition — it was a collection of moments that will live in Gamecock lore for decades. From stunning upsets to historic demolitions, from rivalry masterclasses to a Final Four performance that exposed the emperor’s new clothes in Storrs, Connecticut, this was a season that delivered everything a basketball fan could ask for. Here is a definitive countdown of the ten games that defined it all.
10. Texas, November 27 — Players Era Championship, Gamecocks lose 66-64
Every great season has its wound, and this was South Carolina’s. The Gamecocks built a second-half lead only to watch it evaporate, and when Texas had the chance to close it out, South Carolina forced a turnover and clawed back. Ta’Niya Latson drew the foul and coolly knocked down both free throws to tie the game — a moment that felt like destiny.
Then Rori Harmon happened.
With time ticking down, Harmon found her favorite spot on the baseline and buried a fallaway jumper that sent South Carolina home with its only blemish of the season. It was a gut punch, but also a reminder that even in defeat, this team was capable of producing the kind of drama that makes college basketball worth watching. The loss stung — but it also lit a fire that would burn all the way to April.
9. Tennessee, February 8 — Gamecocks win 93-50
Nobody expected Tennessee to win. But nobody expected this either.
South Carolina didn’t just beat the Lady Vols — they handed them the worst loss in program history, a 43-point demolition that sent shockwaves through a rivalry that has always carried enormous emotional weight regardless of the competitive gap between the programs. The margin was so staggering that Kim Caldwell publicly dismantled her own team in the postgame press conference — a moment widely cited as one of the catalysts for Tennessee’s stunning season-ending collapse.
For Gamecock fans, there is always something particularly satisfying about putting Tennessee in their place. This game did that and then some.
8. Louisville, December 4 — Gamecocks win 79-77
Coming off the Texas loss, South Carolina was staring down the barrel of something that hadn’t happened since the 2018-19 season — consecutive losses. The Gamecocks were in genuine danger, and Louisville sensed blood.
Then Madina Okot took over.
Six straight points from Okot swung the momentum back in South Carolina’s favor, and Raven Johnson added a crucial basket to seal a win that, in retrospect, may have been one of the most important of the entire season. Not because of how it looked — it was far from pretty — but because of what it prevented. A two-game losing streak at that stage of the season could have derailed everything. Instead, the Gamecocks found a way, as great teams do.
7. Vanderbilt, January 25 — Gamecocks win 103-72
Context makes this win even more impressive than the scoreline suggests. South Carolina was coming off a loss at Oklahoma. Vanderbilt was one of just two unbeaten teams left in the entire country. The Commodores arrived with legitimate national championship conversation swirling around them and every reason to believe this was their moment to announce themselves on the biggest stage.
South Carolina gave them their answer in the first 98 seconds.
An 11-2 run — seven points of which came directly off turnovers — set the tone immediately, and the Gamecocks never looked back, sprinting to a 31-point win that was never actually that close. For an upstart program dreaming of a Cinderella moment, running into this South Carolina team at full motivation was simply the wrong time and the wrong place.
6. Texas, January 15 — Gamecocks win 68-65
The rematch with Texas was everything the rivalry promised. Two elite programs locked together for an entire second half, never separated by more than a possession — it was exactly the kind of game that defines a season.
Joyce Edwards delivered a three-point play to hand South Carolina the lead, and then Texas made a critical tactical error: they declined to guard Madina Okot. She made them pay instantly, draining a confident three-pointer that gave the Gamecocks their largest lead of the game with 3:30 remaining. From that point, South Carolina was in complete control, keeping Texas at arm’s length until the final buzzer and banking a statement win that reaffirmed the Gamecocks’ standing as the standard in women’s college basketball.
5. Oklahoma, March 28 — Sweet 16, Gamecocks win 94-68
This one was personal. Oklahoma was one of the two teams that had beaten South Carolina in the regular season, and the Gamecocks were candid afterward about the fact that they simply hadn’t been fully locked in for that loss. There would be no such lapse in the rematch.
South Carolina opened with a 10-0 run and never looked back. With the Sooners keying defensively on Joyce Edwards, Ta’Niya Latson erupted for 28 points and Raven Johnson added 18, turning what Oklahoma hoped would be a tactical adjustment into a tactical disaster. Oklahoma never had a chance, and South Carolina served notice that a team with that kind of depth and that kind of collective firepower is simply impossible to game-plan against.
4. TCU, March 30 — Elite Eight, Gamecocks win 78-52
Give TCU credit — they hung around for a half and kept the game genuinely competitive. But South Carolina’s ability to flip a switch in the second half of big games is one of the defining characteristics of this program under Dawn Staley.
The third quarter turned the tide, and then Agot Makeer provided the exclamation point — sparking a 15-0 run to open the fourth quarter that turned a competitive Elite Eight game into a statement blowout. Makeer’s ability to change a game’s momentum in a single burst of energy is the kind of weapon that championships are built on, and she delivered it on the biggest stage available.
3. LSU, February 14 — Gamecocks win 79-72
LSU did everything right to set the stage for a signature win. A sellout crowd. ESPN College GameDay in the building. The return of Milaysia Fulwiley — the former Gamecock turned Tiger — splashed across the game program for maximum dramatic effect. LSU even resurrected South Carolina’s own 2015-16 season theme, “The Show,” in an attempt to out-spectacle the Gamecocks on their biggest night.
They forgot one thing: the game still had to be played.
“Nobody guarded Tessa Johnson” — a line that immediately became a meme and summarized LSU’s defensive preparation in devastating fashion. Then Flau’jae Johnson missed two critical go-ahead free throws with 45 seconds remaining, and the moment slipped away. Raven Johnson found Madina Okot for the decisive basket, South Carolina made its free throws, and another LSU signature moment dissolved into another Gamecock victory. The production value was extraordinary. The result was inevitable.
2. UConn, April 3 — Final Four, Gamecocks win 62-48
UConn arrived in the Final Four carrying everything that program has always carried — the all-time winningest coach in the sport, the soon-to-be No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, the national player of the year, and an unblemished 54-game winning streak built against what proved to be a schedule that hadn’t truly prepared them for a challenge of this magnitude.
South Carolina dismantled every bit of it.
The Gamecocks outcoached, outplayed, and outtalented the Huskies in a performance so complete and so dominant that it raised serious questions about how real UConn’s undefeated season had actually been. When confronted with genuine elite competition, the Huskies crumbled — and Geno Auriemma’s sideline meltdowns throughout the game became the defining visual of the evening, a jarring contrast to the composed, commanding presence of Dawn Staley on the other bench.
The optics were telling. The 14-point final margin told the rest of the story. The dynasty in Storrs had met its match — and it wasn’t close.
1. LSU, March 7 — SEC Tournament Semifinals, Gamecocks win
“This might have been the best game I’ve ever covered. Period. Stop. End of discussion.”
That is the kind of statement a writer makes when they have run out of qualifiers — when the event itself simply demands unambiguous language. And everything about this game justifies it.
The crowd at Bon Secours Wellness Arena was a rare, electric mixture — enough LSU supporters to break the partisan lean and create the kind of genuine back-and-forth atmosphere that college basketball rarely delivers at this level. Every possession had weight. Every stop drew noise. Every basket answered another.
At the center of it all was a one-on-one duel for the ages: Raven Johnson versus Milaysia Fulwiley. Two extraordinary players, each with everything to prove, trading blows in a game that felt larger than basketball.
Fulwiley was spectacular. She matched her then-career-high of 24 points — the same output that had earned her SEC Tournament MVP honors when she helped South Carolina beat LSU back in 2024, back when she was still a Gamecock. She came for everything.
But Johnson was better. A career-high 22 points and eight assists — and when the game was on the line, she didn’t look for her own shot. She found Madina Okot for the go-ahead layup. Then Fulwiley turned the ball over, and it was over.
Not with a spectacular individual moment. Not with a highlight-reel shot. But with the kind of unselfish, team-first brilliance that defines what Dawn Staley has built in Columbia.
It was, in a single word, brilliant. 🏀
