We are a quarter of the way through the 21st century. I’ll give you a moment to come to grips with that disturbing fact.
Now that you have hopefully reconciled with the passage of time, let’s get to the point.
It’s 2025, so let’s look back on the 25 best moments for South Carolina women’s basketball this century. On Tuesday, we covered moments 25 through 11. Today, we get to the top ten.
10. Olivia Gaines’ bucket against North Carolina (2015)
Gaines was a little-used defensive change-of-pace guard. But in the Sweet 16, she hit a baseline jumper to tie the game against North Carolina. Tiffany Mitchell hit the game-winner, but it was Gaines’ unexpected basket that proved the Gamecocks’ mettle. They would come from behind again in the Elite Eight against Florida State to reach their first Final Four.
9. “There’s no place like home” (2014)
This was the game when South Carolina women’s basketball became the juggernaut we know today. It was an open secret that A’ja Wilson, the local player who was the top-ranked recruit in the country, was taking her official visit this weekend. South Carolina held nothing back, handing out neon green shirts that said “There’s no place like home” and encouraging fans to chant “We want A’ja” (or Asia, as in current player Asia Dozier, to avoid any recruiting violations). I was sitting courtside to cover the game, and I still remember being amazed at all the neon shirts entering the arena. They kept coming and coming. Attendance for that game was 7,828, an astonishing number at the time. But the most unexpected thing was yet to come: they came back. Attendance for the next game against Arkansas was 7,545. It was two weeks before the next home game, and on the heels of an eight-game winning streak, South Carolina was hosting Florida with a chance to clinch a share of the SEC championship. 10,547 people, the second-biggest crowd ever (behind only the first game at Colonial Life Arena), attended. Then 12,458 turned up against Georgia to see the Gamecocks receive their SEC championship trophy and finish off an undefeated season at home. Not only had South Carolina convinced Wilson to stay home, it had turned the Gamecocks into the nation’s attendance leader.
8.“Gosh, that’s pretty” (2020)
From the SEC championship game against Mississippi State, this is, sadly, the defining moment of the 2020 season. Aliyah Boston grabbed the rebound, passed ahead to Ty Harris. One dribble. Pass to Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, who tossed back to Zia Cooke, who dropped off to Bea Beal for the layup. All five Gamecocks touched the ball with just one dribble. “Gosh, that’s pretty,” Courtney Lyle cooed on the broadcast. All Mississippi State could do was watch, and a few weeks later, Vic Schafer decamped for Texas. There is a forboding moment during the broadcast when Carolyn Peck is talking about Harris’ pro potential and says, “She’s got some more college games to play before she has to worry about that.” Now that feels like a gut punch.
7. A’ja Wilson’s putback against Duke (2014)
This was the game that put South Carolina in the national conversation. In 2014, Duke was the powerhouse, and South Carolina was the upstart trying to prove itself. Even though South Carolina was ranked no. 1, nobody gave the Gamecocks much of a chance at no. 9 Duke. But the not-yet-called-the-FAMs took over Cameron Indoor Stadium (“They kept coming and coming and coming,” Aleighsa Welch said in disbelief), and A’ja Wilson scored the game-winning putback with 1.8 seconds left. It proved the Gamecocks were elite. Stunned, I said to another media member after the game, “This team might have something.” Sure enough, it sparked the program’s first Final Four appearance.
6. Kamilla Cardoso’s game-winner (2024)
This was the biggest threat to South Carolina’s undefeated 2023-24 season. Tennessee led 73-71 with 1.1 seconds left in the SEC tournament semifinals. Raven Johnson inbounded the ball near midcourt, and there’s a camera angle where you can see me behind her, making plans for the free Sunday I didn’t expect to have. Instead, Tennessee botched the defense, Johnson passed to Kamilla Cardoso, who stepped behind the arc and banked in the game-winner, the first three-pointer of her career. It takes a bit of luck to go undefeated, and this was it.
5. Finally beating UConn (2020)
Honestly, time has probably influenced the memory, but let’s go with how I remember it. This was about the atmosphere as much as the game: It was the hottest ticket, men or women, this millennium. Two hours before the 7:00 tip, traffic was backed up into the Vista. Somehow, the FAMs were still in their seats an hour before tipoff, and the noise was deafening. Organizers brought the flame launchers over from Williams-Brice Stadium (not the indoor ones they use now), and this is the pregame intro South Carolina still uses for marketing (occasionally for men’s basketball, too). By 6:45, I was exhausted, but the FAMs never let up. Ty Harris dominated the first quarter, and South Carolina held UConn to an unthinkable two points. In the third quarter, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan drained a three, turned and held her arms out, and it was ecstasy. It was perfection. South Carolina was bigger, stronger, faster, better. After the game, Geno Auriemma said, “Shit, we’re allowed to lose once in a while,” but he knew it was more than that. South Carolina had finally flipped the rivalry, and UConn spent the next five years chasing the Gamecocks.
4. 2022 National championship game
You know you are spoiled when you are arguing over which national championship is best. It was sweet to beat UConn (at the time, Staley ranked it over the 2017 title), especially after infamously coming up short the year before (The Aliyah Boston tears thing is too much to relive here). But the game was never really close, and there weren’t many dramatic plays, so it’s not the best.
3. 2017 National Championship
The first one holds a special place because it was the first. But it was also anticlimactic (see next). South Carolina had to beat Stanford to get there. Tara VanDerveer was one of Dawn Staley’s mentors, and their teams had met several times. Stanford won every one, with Staley conceding that the Cardinal were simply better. This time, Allisha Gray scored 18 points, A’ja Wilson grabbed 19 rebounds, and freshman Tyasha Harris made the clutch plays to finally beat Stanford. And then this happened…
2. Morgan William’s shot
South Carolina beat Stanford in the first national semifinal, and then in the late game, Morgan William hit a buzzer-beater to eliminate UConn and end the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak. Eight years later, it’s hard to explain, but you had to be there. The moment William’s shot went in, South Carolina clinched its first national championship. Could the Gamecocks have beaten the Huskies? Doubtful. But there was no doubt they would beat the Buldogs, against whom they held a 10-game winning streak. I still remember finishing up my coverage of South Carolina’s semifinal win, watching the game-winner, and sitting there stunned: “The Gamecocks just won a national championship.” Sure enough, the championship game played out just like every other South Carolina-Mississippi State game – a Gamecock win.
1. 2024 National Championship
It could be no other. You couldn’t have written a more perfect script. South Carolina became just the tenth team to go undefeated, defeating Iowa, the team that had ended the Gamecocks’ quest to go undefeated the year before. Even better, the game turned in South Carolina’s favor when Raven Johnson stripped Caitlin Clark, who had mocked her a season before, for a layup just before halftime. From that point on, Johnson had Clark locked down. There were a lot of other heroes in South Carolina’s win – shoutout to Kamila Cardoso, Te-Hina Paopao, and Tessa Johnson – vindicating Dawn Staley’s philosophy that a team beats a player. It even brought Staley to tears.
