South Carolina vs UNC women’s basketball game score, recap

South Carolina women’s basketball wrapped up its preseason Thursday with another exhibition win.

Dawn Staley and the No. 2 Gamecocks got a strong 91-82 win over No. 11 North Carolina in State Farm Arena. South Carolina controlled the scoreboard for all but three minutes in the game, and a late push from North Carolina tightened up the final margin.

The Gamecocks finish their preseason exhibition slate with a perfect 2-0 record and now turn their attention to Monday’s regular season opener against Grand Canyon.

A good night on offense

South Carolina’s offense looked good in an exhibition against Anderson last week and continued to perform well against increased competition on Thursday.

Ta’Niya Latson and Tessa Johnson both found a groove on offense and finished tied for a team-high 19 points.

“I felt really comfortable,” Latson said. “I played against UNC before, so I just knew I had to bring my practice habits to the game and just be myself.”

Every Gamecock who saw the floor against North Carolina played, and five players finished with more than 10 points. Joyce Edwards tallied 12 points and Maryam Dauda gave the Gamecocks 10 points off the bench. Madina Okot finished with 11 points.

South Carolina shot 50% as a team.

Good work on defense

The Gamecocks were able to keep pressure on North Carolina’s offense all game.

USC forced North Carolina to turn the ball over 15 times. The Gamecocks recorded nine steals as a team, led by Raven Johnson.

Almost every Gamecock recorded a block in the game. South Carolina had six blocks as a team.

Some rotation adversity

Let’s face it, South Carolina wasn’t exactly put through any major challenges when it beat D-II Anderson 112-32 in its first exhibition last week.

The Gamecocks did run into some slight adversity against the Tar Heels on Thursday, though that should be expected against a Top 25 team.

Okot and Tessa Johnson both found themselves in some foul trouble in the game. Both finished with four fouls.

When that happened, Staley leaned on Joyce Edwards in the post, though Dauda and Adhel Tac provided serviceable minutes, and Maddy McDaniel and Agot Makeer in the back court.

Quick note on Raven Johnson and Ayla McDowell

All but one of South Carolina’s 10 available players on the roster made an appearance in the game. The lone player to not log any minutes was freshman wing Ayla McDowell.

Staley said McDowell, who scored six points in 14 minutes against Anderson, didn’t play due to an illness.

“She’s been sick for the last probably couple days,” Staley said. “She probably could have played, but she didn’t really feel that well during shoot-around. … She’s braving through it. But I decided just to allow her to get better so she could be ready for when the regular season rolls around.”

Johnson went to the locker room after a hard fall late in the second quarter. It took her a minute to get off the floor and when she did, she was holding her lower back.

Johnson returned to the game and started the second half. She finished with five points, five assists and three steals.

Staley confirmed Johnson was fine after the game.

“We’ll see what she feels like tomorrow,” Staley said. “She’s probably going to hurt a little bit, probably going to be a bit sore tomorrow. But Raven is tough.”

South Carolina WBB schedule: Next four games

• Monday: vs Grand Canyon, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Nov. 7: vs Bowling Green, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Nov. 11: vs Clemson, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
• Nov. 15: vs Southern Cal in The Real SC in Los Angeles 9 p.m. (Fox)

This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 7:52 PM.