No. 2 South Carolina dominates No. 5 Texas, 67–50, in top SEC clash

No. 2 South Carolina made a definitive statement to the SEC and other top women’s basketball teams in the nation with a dominant win over No. 5 Texas on Sunday in Columbia.

Te-Hina Paopao and Chloe Kitts each led the Gamecocks with 11 points and four rebounds, followed by Joyce Edwards adding 10 points. Overall, South Carolina spread the scoring around with eight of the 10 players who saw action getting points.

Paopao also grabbed four rebounds while shooting 2-of-3 on 3-pointers. Raven Johnson had a team-leading 10 rebounds, followed by nine by Sania Feagin.

The Gamecocks and Longhorns both came into Sunday’s game with 15–1 records. South Carolina’s lone defeat was to No. 1 UCLA, while Texas fell to No. 3 Notre Dame.

Yet the matchup looked anything but even, thanks largely to South Carolina’s defense. Texas scored a season-low nine points in the first quarter en route to 21 for the first half. The Longhorns shot just 23% in the first two quarters, while South Carolina made 71% of its shots from the floor.

“I just didn’t have my team ready to play. At the end of the day, they weren’t ready,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer told reporters afterward. “We had talked about trying not to get popped first and we got hit first, second and third.”

Kyla Oldacre was the only player to score in double figures for Texas with 11 points, adding a game-high 16 rebounds. Rori Harmon added nine points, followed by Madison Booker‘s seven points and nine boards.

Up next for Texas is a visit to Auburn (9–7) on Thursday.

South Carolina begins a tough four-game stretch against top-25 SEC opponents, beginning with a road matchup versus No. 18 Alabama (15–2) on Wednesday. That will be followed by hosting No. 10 Oklahoma (13–3) and No. 6 LSU (18–0) before traveling to No. 16 Tennessee (14–2).

The conference opponents will face each other again on Feb. 9 in Austin.