GREENVILLE, S.C. — No. 3 South Carolina and No. 17 Kentucky ended the regular season with a game to aptly capture the level of competition this year in the SEC. The Gamecocks escaped by four points. But they had to withstand a furious rally that underscored the general theme of the conference this season. There’s very little opportunity to get comfortable around here. Not even for Dawn Staley and South Carolina.
Yet the Gamecocks looked comfortable as could be in a rematch during the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament on Friday. There was an element of exhaustion here, to be sure, with Kentucky playing its third game in three days and very much looking the part. But there was also just straightforward talent. South Carolina rarely makes the same mistakes twice. After needing to gut out its win over Kentucky down the stretch last Sunday, it showed that it had learned enough to put forth an overwhelming display of power on Friday, building an easy lead that it never relinquished. The 87–64 win felt almost like a reminder for the rest of the conference.
No one wants to face South Carolina once. Absolutely no one wants to face South Carolina twice.
That fact could prove important this weekend. Both losses this year for the 29–2 Gamecocks came at the hands of conference foes. They entered this tournament knowing that the two teams that beat them, No. 4 Texas and No. 7 Oklahoma, both had the potential to lurk ahead in the bracket. But any rematches will almost certainly look quite different.
For the rematch against Kentucky, that meant creating more pressure in the paint, forcing Wildcats big Clara Strack to put the ball on the floor. “We did a really good job at digging and closing out the shooters and just giving Strack much different movement than she got on Sunday,” said Staley. That helped build a big enough lead to empty the bench down the stretch. Every available player on the roster logged at least five minutes for the Gamecocks.
“It was good to get the other girls going, the bench players,” said guard Tessa Johnson, who finished with 15 points. “The SEC tournament’s a little different. They just got to get their feet wet a little bit.”
There is no SEC program with its feet as collectively wet as South Carolina. The Gamecocks have three straight conference tournament championships and have played for the title in 11 of the last 12 years. Their quarterfinals performance made it hard to believe they would not challenge for another on Sunday.
“Obviously, the SEC is hard, every game is hard,” said sophomore Joyce Edwards, who led all scorers with 21 points. “But we have hopefully two more games here. That’s the plan.”
Vanderbilt crashes out
Nothing went according to plan for No. 5 Vanderbilt’s 89–78 loss to Ole Miss on Friday. A group that came to Greenville fully intending to challenge for an SEC title did not plan to open its tournament play with the worst quarter of basketball that it has played all year, a remarkably bumbling, disjointed effort that saw the Commodores fall behind No. 24 Ole Miss by a score of 25–6. It did not plan for star Mikayla Blakes to open the game shooting 0-for-10. It did not plan to watch typically sunshiney coach Shea Ralph get ejected after some choice words for the referees in the fourth quarter. And it did not plan to go on a 15–0 run after Ralph had been escorted off the bench, just enough to make this game pulse with some emotion beyond simple frustration, if not enough to actually mount a comeback.
Ralph came into her press conference smiling. She had turned on the television when she went back to the locker room: “I think what I saw from my team was maybe the coolest thing that’s happened all year, in terms of the fight that they showed, the togetherness, the huddles,” she said. “Just the way that they responded was really special.” Ralph was careful to note that she had not tried to get ejected. But she had said what she felt she needed to say. (An astute lip reader could see her taking issue with a foul call before telling the referee, “You suck,” followed by something a little saltier.) Her players had never seen her ejected before.
Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph was just ejected after Mikayla Blakes picked up her fourth foul
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) March 7, 2026
“How is that a f***ing foul??” @NoCapSpaceWBB pic.twitter.com/rnKbjVD0CO
“Coach Ralph comes in and fights for us every day,” said senior Sacha Washington. “So when she got ejected, I knew personally, I didn’t want to do anything else but fight for our team.”
It was not something the Commodores would like to repeat. “I’m not one for a moral victory,” Ralph said. “That’s not what I’m saying here… But the way that we finished the game today is the Vanderbilt that I know we can be.” They have two weeks to translate that into something that fits their plan.
As for Ole Miss, whose big win came off a pair of huge performances from Latasha Lattimore and Cotie McMahon, with 28 and 27 points, respectively?
“People started talking about Vandy as if we didn’t have a game to play,” said coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. “And so we just used that in the game to give us a little bit of an edge.”
Elsewhere in the SEC tournament…
What should we make of Tennessee?
There has never been an NCAA women’s basketball tournament without Tennessee. A few first-round exits, yes, here and there across the decades. But the idea of a tournament without Tennessee altogether feels almost like a tournament without nets.
It’s unlikely that changes this year. Tennessee will still almost certainly receive a bid. But after falling to Alabama in the second round of the SEC tournament on Thursday—the seventh consecutive loss for the Lady Vols—the outlook here is shakier than it’s ever been. Kim Caldwell’s second year in Knoxville has seen the program falter. It’s not just that this team has not won since Valentine’s Day. It’s that every loss has looked disjointed, frustrating and simply ugly, punctuated with off-the-court question marks and difficult press conferences.
But their season is very likely not over. As hard as this recent stretch has been to watch, Tennessee is still 23rd in NET ranking and has five Quad I wins: That should be enough for a tournament spot. Tennessee’s 12 regular season losses will tie for the most of any team ever to receive an at-large bid but will not set a new record. That leaves Caldwell & Co. two weeks to see if they can get things back on the rails.
Texas holds ’em
One of the central questions of this weekend was which SEC team would position itself for the fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. No. 5 Vanderbilt’s loss opened the door for that to go to No. 4 Texas. And the Longhorns waltzed right on up to the threshold. With a dominant, balanced effort from start to finish, they trounced Alabama by a score of 83–60. Vic Schaefer used everyone on the roster and 10 players got points in the win. That sets up a semifinal matchup with LSU on Saturday for a chance to cement their case.
LSU is still hitting triple digits
No. 6 LSU’s 112–78 win over No. 7 Oklahoma was a reminder that no team can score quite like the Tigers. Their 95 points per game rank top in Division I, and while that number was certainly influenced by their relatively easy nonconference schedule early in the year, it’s just as relevant in March. And it was also a reminder that no player is quite like MiLaysia Fulwiley.
MiLaysia Fulwiley today 🔥
— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) March 6, 2026
• 22 points
• 8 assists
• 4 rebounds
• 3 blocks pic.twitter.com/H0pz1zPiOK
Fulwiley, who transferred from South Carolina, is the leading scorer for LSU. She also almost exclusively comes off the bench. The junior guard can produce some of the best highlights in the sport, with a devastating combination of speed, vision and smooth handles. But those highlights can feel like islands of excellence in a sea of frustrating mishaps. “Lay’s going to make a spectacular play, then she might have you pulling her hair out,” Kim Mulkey said afterward. “But you let her play.”
Fulwiley’s performance on Friday had far more of the former than the latter. Fulwiley led all scorers with 22 points, alongside eight assists and four rebounds.
“A player like that, you just can't help but love to play with. Even through the mistakes she makes, it's so cool because she'll go back and get it after,” said LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson. “She teaches me about confidence a lot because she'll go down there and she will turn the ball over, and then she'll come back and do a behind-the-back head pass again like it don't even matter.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as South Carolina Dominates As Usual, Vanderbilt Crashes Out at the SEC Tournament.
