Lady Gamecocks adds top women’s basketball scorer from the portal while losing talented sophomore

COLUMBIA, S.C. — After being dismantled by the UConn Huskies for the second time this season in the National Championship game, the South Carolina women’s basketball team is caught up in the whirl wind of the transfer portal or better known as the ‘college free agency.’

A few days after their championship game loss, the Lady Gamecocks added the best scorer in the country. Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson announced on social media that she will joining the South Carolina women’s basketball. The 5-foot-8 guard has averaged at least 20 points per game since she stepped foot on the college level as a freshman in 2022. She led the nation in scoring as a junior. She averaged 25.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 4.6 APG.

The move will reunite Latson with her former high school teammate Raven Johnson. Johnson decided to return to South Carolina as a fifth-year senior and hold off on the WNBA for now. The two won three state titles and a national title while suiting up for Westlake High School in Atlanta, GA under legendary head coach Hilda Hankerson. This move also gives the Lady Gamecocks some much needed scoring after being exposed by the Lady Huskies in both of the games that they played this past season.

South Carolina finished the season as 15th scoring team in the nation and had no player to average more than 13 ppg. Freshman Joyce Edwards led the team in scoring with 12.7 ppg. Defensively, they only allowed 58 ppg, but gave 75 or more points in three of their four losses this season, UConn averaged 84.5 points against them in the two meetings this season.

While the Lady Gamecocks added some talent from the portal, they will also lose talent to the portal. Talented sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley reportedly entered the transfer portal after the news of Latson’s transfer to South Carolina. Fulwiley averaged 11.7 ppg, which was the second best on the team this year. She was a huge spark off the bench for the Gamecocks and came up big in the Sweet 16 against Maryland with 23 points to lead them in scoring. She was also named SEC Sixth Player of the Year this past season.

It is no indication on where Fulwiley is headed for her next stop, but she entered the portal with a ‘Do Not Contact’ tag and this will certainly be a huge loss for the South Carolina women’s basketball team.

The sophomore sensation struggled with turnovers at times and being the floor general that Dawn Staley is used to having at the position, but it is no denying her talent and ceiling.