'You've got to pick your poison': Guard play lifts South Carolina women's basketball amid injuries

South Carolina started the 2025-26 season with its shallowest roster in terms of numbers since 2020-21, having only 11 players on its roster.

Then, following an injury to senior forward Chloe Kitts, it cut the active and healthy roster down to 10. It is the first time since 2017-18 that Dawn Staley’s roster featured that few active players, and injuries trimmed even that roster to nine following a season-ending injury to Lindsey Spann.

The limited roster allows everyone to get significant burn in games. Additionally, as teams have attempted for years, opponents will attempt to take the paint away. Both of those factors force South Carolina’s guards to step up.

The group responded to the call in a big way, shooting 9-for-19 from three in the season opener against Grand Canyon and scoring 62 of the team’s 94 points.

“You can’t take anything away from a great team. You’ve got to pick your poison,” said former South Carolina assistant and current Grand Canyon head coach Winston Gandy. “Dawn’s done a phenomenal job building the team where you have to literally pick your poison, and you’re at their mercy.”

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South Carolina’s guard room got a new addition heading into the 2025-26 season with Ta’Niya Latson, an All-American at Florida State and former high school teammate of senior leader Raven Johnson.

It is their connection that makes the Gamecock guard room even stronger. Staley said that with four new starters, the group needs to connect and build chemistry over the course of the early season.

“It’s good to have that instant chemistry from them playing high school and AAU together,” Staley said. “That’s something that we can bank. We just have to start connecting, just have a connection out there. 

Johnson said Latson makes things easier for her on the floor.

“My instinct is to go her way, like, find her. Don’t ask me why it’s like that, but it’s like that,” Johnson said. “She brings out the best in me, honestly. She makes me play harder than what I’m capable of.”

Beyond its scoring, the South Carolina guards were efficient in distributing the ball, picking up 19 assists as a team, with one coming from forward Joyce Edwards. It is the efficiency of her older guards, Latson, Tessa Johnson, and Raven Johnson, that Staley found most impressive.

“I mean, they’re our most experienced guards, so you tend to expect those types of things,” Staley said. “… They’re very, very efficient. And, more likely, they’re getting some layups. You can’t just be a jump shooter. They’re attacking the basket; they’re getting layups. They’re in a pretty good rhythm, and they practice that way.”

The Gamecocks’ nine made threes, eight split among its guards, is the most from South Carolina since scoring 12 in the opening game of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

During the 2024-25 season, the Gamecocks made more than nine threes five times. Across those games, they won by an average of 41 points.

“That was the goal. We wanted to get a lot of threes, especially the guards,” Latson said of Monday night’s shooting performance. “Coming out, we knew we had to shoot them, especially good open shots; we just had to create for each other.”

The group also has the skills necessary for Staley to run a four-guard lineup if necessary, even if it is not ideal. Staley said it is something her team will have to get used to when teams play small-ball against them.

However, just because they started the season hot, Staley knows the entire 10-woman roster needs to step up to reach the team’s goal of a national title.

“You can go pretty far with good guard play. But, at some point, you’re gonna need the bigs to come alive,” Staley said.

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball!