COLUMBIA, S.C. — Dawn Staley came into Thursday night’s contest with one primary concern. The SEC regular-season title was already within reach, the opponent was a Missouri team on a four-game losing streak, and the emotional weight of Senior Night had the potential to distract from the disciplined execution that has defined South Carolina’s season. She need not have worried.
The Gamecocks delivered on every front. A 112-71 demolition of the Tigers at Colonial Life Arena gave South Carolina its fifth consecutive SEC regular-season championship outright, sent four seniors out in style, and produced some of the most explosive offensive numbers the program has generated all season. From the opening minutes to the final buzzer, this was a masterclass in how a dynasty handles a moment that demands both feeling and focus.
The Start: A Run That Ended the Game Before It Began
South Carolina took control early with a 15-0 run to take a 23-7 lead late in the first quarter. Sports Illustrated For Missouri, a team that has struggled all season to compete with the SEC’s elite, that deficit was effectively a sentence. The Tigers never recovered, and the remaining three quarters became a question not of outcome but of margin.
The first quarter told the entire story of the matchup in microcosm. The Gamecocks finished shooting 44-84 on a highly efficient and high-volume attack, Sports Illustrated a pace that Missouri’s depleted and size-deficient roster was never equipped to absorb. South Carolina scored 33 points in the opening quarter alone, tying their season high, and carried 57 points into halftime — their SEC season high. By the time the second half arrived, the game had long since been decided.
The Size Problem Missouri Could Not Solve
Mizzou’s lack of size continued to be an issue against the elite teams of the SEC. The Gamecocks finished with a 19-6 advantage in offensive rebounds, which in turn led to outscoring Mizzou 28-0 in second-chance opportunities. Sports Illustrated That figure alone captures the structural imbalance that defined the evening. Missouri had no answer for South Carolina’s interior presence, and every missed shot became an opportunity for the Gamecocks to extend possessions until they found one that went in.
South Carolina found easy points thanks to 15 Missouri turnovers, which they turned into 26 points going the other way. Sports Illustrated The Gamecocks’ defensive system — anchored by Raven Johnson on the perimeter and Madina Okot in the paint — turned Missouri’s offensive possessions into transition opportunities with brutal regularity, compounding the already lopsided rebounding advantage into a comprehensive statement victory.
This marked the most points that Missouri has allowed under head coach Kellie Harper, now permitting their opponents to reach triple digits in back-to-back games. Sports Illustrated For a program in the early stages of building toward SEC relevance, Thursday night offered a painfully clear picture of how far that climb remains.
Missouri’s Fight Within the Rout
To the Tigers’ credit, they did not fold entirely. The Missouri offense looked better than it has in recent games, cracking 70 points for the first time in the last five games. Four different Tigers ended the game with double-digit points. Sports Illustrated Grace Slaughter led the scoring once again with 21 points while shooting 6-17 from the field, 4-11 from three, and 5-6 on free throws. Sports Illustrated Her consistency in double figures — maintained in every game this season — remained intact even against South Carolina’s elite defensive system, a testament to her individual ability.
Shannon Dowell, Missouri’s second-leading scorer, continued to provide secondary creation off screens and in pick-and-roll situations. But with South Carolina’s advantage in size, athleticism, and depth overwhelming at every position, individual contributions could only do so much. By the fourth quarter, the game had transformed into an extended exhibition of what South Carolina’s depth can produce when the outcome is no longer in question.
The Championship Clincher and What It Means
With the final whistle, South Carolina completed what had felt inevitable for weeks — the outright SEC regular-season title, their fifth in as many seasons. Head coach Dawn Staley’s 10 SEC regular-season championships trail only Pat Summitt’s 16 in league history, and she has now joined Summitt as the only coaches to win five consecutive SEC regular-season titles, from 2022 to 2026. Missouri Athletics
The numbers that frame this dynasty are almost difficult to process. Staley’s 227 SEC regular-season wins are the most among active league coaches and third all-time — behind only Summitt at Tennessee and Andy Landers at Georgia. Missouri Athletics She now owns the SEC record for consecutive regular-season conference victories, a streak that redefined what sustainable dominance looks like in women’s college basketball. Every title South Carolina adds to that collection makes the comparison to Summitt’s legacy more credible rather than merely aspirational.
For the senior class being honored Thursday night, the championship is a fitting capstone. Raven Johnson now exits the regular season as a five-time SEC champion. Ta’Niya Latson, who spent three seasons at Florida State before joining Johnson for this final chapter, leaves with a title she could not have earned anywhere else. Madina Okot and Maryam Dauda round out a class whose combined contributions have been central to a 28-2 season that continues to build toward another deep postseason run.
What Comes Next
The blowout win over Missouri closes the regular season’s home portion, but the Gamecocks still have business remaining before the postseason begins. A road trip to Kentucky concludes the regular-season schedule before the SEC Tournament opens March 6th in Greenville, where South Carolina will enter as the No. 1 seed — a position they have now earned for the fifth consecutive year.
Dawn Staley’s message heading into the postseason has been consistent and unambiguous: the standard does not change because the title is already claimed. “The focus is winning, but at the same time, it’s doing it the way we need to do it,” she said before Thursday’s game. “Executing our preparation and ensuring that we don’t put the game in front of doing it the right way.”
The 112-71 scoreline suggests the Gamecocks heard that message clearly.
South Carolina leads the nation in field goal percentage defense at .335 and ranks fourth in scoring defense at 56.0 points per game. Missouri Athletics That defensive infrastructure, combined with the offensive firepower provided by Joyce Edwards, Ta’Niya Latson, and a deep, versatile rotation, makes this a program that enters the SEC Tournament not merely hoping to win, but fully expecting to.
Thursday night belonged to four seniors and one more championship banner. Everything that comes next belongs to March — and if the last five years have taught the women’s college basketball world anything, Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks tend to save their best work for exactly that time of year.
Final Score: South Carolina 112, Missouri 71
Record: South Carolina 28-2 (14-1 SEC) | Missouri 16-14 (4-11 SEC)
