Dawn Staley Saw It Coming: Why MiLaysia Fulwiley’s 24-Point Performance Against South Carolina Was Inevitable
She spent two years learning the system. On Friday night, she used every lesson against it.
THE REVENGE GAME STALEY PREDICTED
Dawn Staley didn’t need a scouting report to know MiLaysia Fulwiley was coming. She needed only a memory.
When Fulwiley managed just six points on 1-for-8 shooting in LSU’s 79-72 loss to South Carolina on Feb. 14, anyone who had coached her for two years understood what that performance was — an aberration, not a statement. Staley knew a correction was coming. And at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 7, it arrived right on schedule.
Fulwiley finished with a game-high 24 points on 10-for-21 shooting, adding four assists, one steal, and one block in LSU’s 83-77 semifinal defeat to the No. 1 seed Gamecocks, who improved to 31-2 and advanced to face Texas in the SEC Tournament final on March 8. The numbers were a direct, point-for-point rebuttal to her February showing — and they came against the program that built her.
Staley didn’t hesitate when asked about her former player afterward.
“I mean, I still think MiLaysia is a generational talent,” Staley said. “She does things out there on the floor that I haven’t seen a whole lot of female basketball players do. I’m generally happy for her. Like, I’m super happy. She’s actually doing some of the things that we talked about her doing. Just direct line drives and making plays. We all know she can play. We all know that she undoubtedly is a tremendous player.”
That assessment, delivered with genuine warmth by a coach whose program just held off Fulwiley’s best effort, speaks volumes. Staley is not a coach who offers flattery lightly. When she calls a player a “generational talent,” she means it — and her familiarity with Fulwiley makes the praise more credible, not less.
A SECOND QUARTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
The most revealing chapter of Fulwiley’s night came in the second quarter, when she almost single-handedly flipped the game’s momentum. Her 11 points in that period gave LSU a four-point halftime lead — only the second time all season South Carolina found itself trailing at the break. That statistic alone tells you how significant the stretch was. You don’t put the nation’s best team on its heels by accident.
For Fulwiley, playing at home — she’s a Columbia, South Carolina native — sharpened the competitive edge further. But her explanation of what was happening internally in that second quarter reveals a player operating with rare mental clarity.
“I feel like I just want to win. I just got the mindset of going out there and helping my team win … I actually didn’t see anything but the goal,” Fulwiley said. “I was just staying confident, just believing in myself, believing in all the work I put in. My teammates did a great job finding me, and I just made sure I made the baskets.”
That kind of tunnel vision — filtering out the noise of playing against your former team, in your hometown, on a massive stage — is precisely what separates elite players from good ones. Fulwiley wasn’t playing to prove a point or settle a score. She was simply playing to win. The damage to her old program was incidental.
THE SEC TOURNAMENT IS HER STAGE
Context matters here. Fulwiley’s 24-point performance was extraordinary — but it wasn’t surprising to anyone who has tracked her tournament history closely. Over the last three years at the SEC Tournament, she has averaged 16 points on 43.3% shooting across eight games. She was named SEC Tournament MVP as a freshman after scoring 24 points against LSU in the final — ironically, the same team she now plays for, and the same point total she just produced against South Carolina.
The symmetry is almost impossible to script. Twenty-four points against LSU as a Gamecock in the 2024 SEC Championship. Twenty-four points against South Carolina as a Tiger in the 2026 semifinal. The SEC Tournament, it seems, brings out a version of MiLaysia Fulwiley that even regular-season opponents don’t always see.
She is, by every available metric, a big-game player.
“WE ALWAYS CONSIDER HER A GAMECOCK”
Perhaps the most telling dimension of this story isn’t what happened on the court — it’s how Staley talked about Fulwiley afterward. There was no guarded language, no coach-speak, no careful distancing from a player who just put 24 points on her team in a tournament game.
“I’m happy for her. Like, I’m really happy for her,” Staley said. “She played two years for us, and we’re always going to be happy. We always consider her a Gamecock, no matter what uniform she puts on.”
That statement is significant because it reflects something real about how South Carolina’s program operates. The Gamecocks don’t just develop players athletically — they build relationships that outlast transfers and rivalries. Staley’s ability to hold both truths simultaneously, being genuinely proud of Fulwiley while competing fiercely against her, is a mark of a coach who understands that championships and character aren’t mutually exclusive.
THE BOTTOM LINE
MiLaysia Fulwiley’s 24-point performance in defeat was one of the finest individual showings of the 2026 SEC Tournament. It didn’t change the outcome — South Carolina’s 19th consecutive win over LSU is a testament to systemic excellence that goes beyond any single player — but it reframed the conversation around who Fulwiley is becoming.
She is no longer just a former Gamecock making good on her potential. She is one of the best players in the country, capable of going for 24 against the best team in the country, on the biggest stage, in her hometown. Dawn Staley saw it coming.
The rest of the sport is catching up.
