Dawn Staley’s team had just beaten a ranked North Carolina team by 45 points, and the coach still sounded like her season was only getting started. The No. 1 Gamecocks won 84-39 on Sunday at the 2026 Ally Tip-Off at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. They pulled away early, never let up, and made a very good team look ordinary. Staley, though, had her own take on what she had just seen.
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“I think we’re a work in progress,” Staley said. “You know you’ll see us make jumps from, from game to game. And I thought we did. We put 40 minutes together, and I was really, really proud of the group that finished the game. I mean, ’cause they, they just picked up where everybody else left off.”
“We need more, more of that. And hopefully with them experiencing, playing like really great minutes because North Carolina never, never gave up. So it was a great opportunity for all of us to learn,” Staley added (via 107.5 The Game on X).
South Carolina opened the season in Paris against Maryland, led by as many as 31 points, then gave up 60 in the second half and held on for a 101-93 win. Staley said afterward that she wished her team had finished better. Against North Carolina, that problem was gone. The Gamecocks scored 50 points in the second half and held the Tar Heels to 22.
The game turned in the middle. South Carolina outscored North Carolina 19-7 in the second quarter and 32-9 in the third, and it took a 66-26 lead into the fourth. The Gamecocks shot 70.6% in the third quarter after making just 36.4% in the first half, and they forced 13 turnovers in that quarter alone.
Guard Jordan Lee said the plan was simple. “Today we wanted to come in and just shut them down offensively,” she said.
Meanwhile, North Carolina shot 25%, hit 21.4% of its threes and turned the ball over 24 times, which South Carolina turned into 38 points.
That defense had a main target. Kate Harpring, North Carolina’s freshman guard and the National High School Player of the Year, had scored 21 points in the opener against Oklahoma.
Staley said the Gamecocks made a plan to take away her vision and show her a crowd every time she touched the ball. Harpring finished with eight points on 3-of-16 shooting and six turnovers.
On the other end, four Gamecocks scored in double figures. Chloe Kitts had 17 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes, her second game back from the injury that kept her out all of last season. Joyce Edwards added 15, Tessa Johnson had 12, and freshman Jerzy Robinson scored 10 off the bench.
South Carolina also won the rebounding battle 48-33, with 19 offensive boards and 25 second-chance points, and it outscored North Carolina 36-14 in the paint.
Robinson’s night says a lot about what Staley meant by depth. With Raven Johnson, the floor general for four seasons, now gone, and Maddy McDaniel leaving in the offseason, South Carolina is running its point guard spot by committee. Johnson, Lee, Brooke Quarles-Daniels and Robinson all get minutes there.
Staley called it “a daunting task” for Robinson, a combo guard in high school, and said she has embraced it. She played 20 minutes, the most of any Gamecock reserve.
South Carolina lost the national title game to UCLA last season, 79-51, and it is playing what Staley called “probably one of the toughest schedules in the nation.”
The Gamecocks are 2-0 with both wins over ranked teams, and the next tests are close. They visit Clemson on Thursday, host Southern Cal on Nov. 15 in a game ABC is billing as “The Real SC,” and play UConn on Nov. 24.
So when Staley calls her team a work in progress after a 45-point win, she is not being modest. She watched her team fix the exact problem from Paris, saw her bench hold the lead, and still wants more.
The Gamecocks are No. 1 in the country, and their coach is telling everyone that this is only the early draft.