COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball is set to have 11 players for the first time all season.
Coach Dawn Staley confirmed on Jan. 14 that her new 6-foot-7 forward from France, Alicia Tournebize, will make her debut against No. 4 Texas on Jan. 15 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
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The No. 2 Gamecocks (17-1, 4-0 SEC) haven’t seen Tournebize hit the floor yet in a game but she did warm up with the team before changing into sweatpants on Jan. 11, when they beat Georgia 65-45.
The Longhorns (18-1, 3-1) are coming off a 70-65 loss to LSU, their first of the season.
Tournebize, 18, is a freshman transfer and announced Dec. 22 that she’d be joining the team. She arrived in Columbia on Jan. 1 and started practicing the week of Jan. 6.
She’s been on the bench for the last three games but will finally get some minutes, according to Staley, and begin her playing career.
Texas beat South Carolina on Nov. 27 in the Players Era tournament championship in Las Vegas with a buzzer beater jump shot to win 66-64.
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The two teams battled four times last year, and Staley finished 3-1 with the most impactful a win in the Final Four to advance to the national championship.
It’s unclear how much she will play but Tournebize will give Staley some depth against a talented Texas team, coming in behind starters Joyce Edwards and Madina Okot.
It will be her first college game but she comes with professional experience. Before joining the Gamecocks, Tournebize played for the professional club Tango Bourges Basket. She also played for France in the 2025 FIBA U18 EuroBasket tournament, where she made the All-Star 5 team.
South Carolina’s injury history in 2025-26 season
Staley has only finished with all 10 players in four games this season and will now have 11. She just got starting guard Ta’Niya Latson back from injury after she was dealing with an ankle sprain.
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Maddy McDaniel was injured in the season opener and missed one game before she served a suspension from Nov. 11-23.
Immediately after the Las Vegas tournament, injuries popped up again. Staley was without Agot Makeer from Dec. 3-28, including one game in the middle without Tessa Johnson and one without Madina Okot.
When she got everyone back for a second time on Dec. 28, Latson went down with an injury.
Will Alicia Tournebize dunk for South Carolina?
Three years after Ashlyn Watkins recorded the first dunk in South Carolina women’s basketball history, Staley has another player who can dunk.
According to South Carolina, Tournebize became the first recorded French woman to dunk in a game in September 2024. Then she dunked with two hands in 2025.
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What was particularly impressive about her two-handed dunk was how it happened. With a player of her height, it’s not uncommon to sink back closer to the basket. But Tournebize went over the screen near the top of the key to pick off the short pass and steal the ball, which allowed the clear runway to dunk.
Staley’s forwards/centers are active defenders and switch screens often, which places them on sometimes quicker, shorter guards.
Alicia Tournebize comes from a basketball family
Tournebize won’t be the first in her family to play in the United States. Her mom, Isabelle Fijalkowski, played for Colorado before she was drafted into the WNBA in 1997 by the Cleveland Rockers. She played her final game in 1998 then went back to France where she played until 2002.
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Alicia Tournebize stats
Staley noted Jan. 2 that her lack of minutes for Tango Bourges Basket was due to her age, as she was on the younger end of the roster. She did score 12 points in 12 minutes in her first game for the club this season.
For the FIBA U18 EuroBasket team, she averaged a team-high 12 points and 8.9 rebounds.
How to pronounce Alicia Tournebize
Her name is pronounced al-EE-see-uh TOR-nah-beez.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at LKesin@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Is Alicia Tournebize South Carolina women’s basketball debut vs Texas?
