The 2021–22 South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team represented the University of South Carolina during the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Gamecocks were led by 14th-year head coach Dawn Staley and played their home games at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. They competed as members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They finished the season 35–2, 15–1 in SEC play, to win the regular season championship. They defeated Arkansas and Ole Miss to advance to the championship of the SEC tournament where they lost to Kentucky. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Greensboro region. They defeated Howard, Miami, North Carolina, Creighton and Louisville to advance to the championship game. There they defeated UConn for the team's second-ever national title.
Aliyah Boston won Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year while head coach Dawn Staley was named Naismith Coach of the Year. The Gamecocks were ranked No. 1 in both polls for the entire year, and finished ranked No. 1 in the AP, Coaches, NET, RPI, ELO, SOS and Massey rankings.
Previous season
The Gamecocks finished the season with a 26–5 overall record and a 14–2 record in conference play. The Gamecocks won the SEC tournament. The Gamecocks therefore received an automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, where they reached the Final Four, losing to Stanford 66–65.
Offseason
2021 recruiting class The Gamecocks signed the #1 class for 2021 according to ESPN. their second #1 class in three years.
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Year Hometown Previous school 10 C 6'8" Sophomore
Preseason Hall of Fame coach Dawn Staley entered her fourteenth year at South Carolina, fresh off winning an Olympic gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning all six games as head coach of Team USA.
South Carolina was named AP preseason #1 for the second straight season, as they return every player from the previous year's Final Four team, added the #1 recruiting class, adding four 5-star recruits, three of which were ranked in the top 5. They also added ACC Freshman of the Year and former 5-star recruit 6'8" Kamillia Cardoso.
Award watchlists
Nancy Lieberman AwardDestanni HendersonPGSRAnn Meyers Drysdale AwardZia CookeSGJRKatrina McClain AwardSania FeaginPFFRLisa Leslie AwardAliyah BostonCJRKamilla CardosoCSOWooden AwardAliyah BostonCJRZia CookeSGJRDestanni HendersonPGSRWade TrophyAliyah BostonCJRZia CookeSGJRNaismith TrophyAliyah BostonCJRZia CookeSGJRDestanni HendersonPGSR
Preseason All-American teams
First team
Aliyah Boston – C
SEC coaches poll The SEC coaches selected the Gamecocks to finish in first place in the SEC.
Coaches poll 1 South Carolina 2 Texas A&M 3 Tennessee 4 Georgia 5 Kentucky 6 Ole Miss 7 Arkansas 8 LSU 9 Mississippi State 10 Missouri 11 Florida 12 Alabama 13 Auburn 14 Vanderbilt
SEC media poll SEC media poll 1 South Carolina 2 Texas A&M 3 Tennessee 4 Georgia 5 Kentucky 6 Ole Miss 7 Arkansas 8 LSU 9 Mississippi State 10 Missouri 11 Florida 12 Alabama 13 Auburn 14 Vanderbilt
Preseason All-SEC teams
First team
Aliyah Boston – C
Zia Cooke – SG
Second team
Destanni Henderson – PG
Roster
Starting lineup Aliyah Boston F Victoria Saxton F Brea Beal G Zia Cooke G Destanni Henderson G
Schedule
!colspan=9 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=| Regular season
!colspan=9 style=| SEC tournament
!colspan=9 style=| NCAA tournament
Source:
Statistics
Team total per game
Gamecocks 2623 975 2289 42.6% 179 585 30.6% 494 731 67.6% 1771 515 239 273 196,286 Opponents 1875 728 2191 33.2% 138 518 26.6% 281 427 65.8% 1117 335 229 153 54,779
Team average per game Gamecocks 70.9 26.4 42.6% 4.8 30.6% 13.4 67.6% 47.9 13.9 6.5 7.4 12,268 Opponents 50.7 19.7 33.2% 3.7 26.6% 7.6 65.8% 30.2 9.1 6.2 4.1 5,478
Individual total per game Aliyah Boston 37 1056 623 239 441 54.2% 14 48 29.2% 131 170 77.1% 150 312 462 75 57 45 90 Destanni Henderson 34 1053 392 144 357 40.3% 55 138 39.9% 49 68 72.1% 23 84 107 133 72 46 4 ZiaCooke 36 982 385 139 406 34.2% 45 157 28.7% 62 88 70.5% 15 61 76 60 76 22 2 Laeticia Amihere 31 520 195 68 156 43.6% 5 11 45.5% 54 83 65.1% 45 68 113 37 57 19 25 Victaria Saxton 37 794 215 86 171 50.3% 0 1 0.0% 43 67 64.2% 118 98 216 43 44 26 48 Kamilla Cardoso 32 428 174 68 123 55.3% 0 0 0.0% 38 53 71.7% 61 103 164 31 39 11 46 BreaBeal 37 890 187 72 189 38.1% 15 63 23.8% 28 47 59.6% 65 121 186 47 38 26 20 LeLeGrissett 25 308 81 30 71 42.3% 1 1 100% 20 40 50.0% 29 21 50 14 19 7 8 BreeHall 30 328 97 32 102 31.4% 14 46 30.4% 19 30 63.3% 12 41 53 1 23 5 1 Destiny Littleton 31 281 80 25 70 35.7% 21 61 34.4% 9 12 75.0% 6 33 39 7 15 9 2 Saniya Rivers 27 348 61 24 98 24.5% 1 31 3.2% 12 24 50.0% 5 38 43 38 27 13 13 EniyaRussell 23 176 53 19 45 42.2% 5 12 41.7% 10 17 58.8% 5 25 30 19 16 4 2 SaniaFeagin 31 133 58 21 34 61.8% 0 0 0.0% 16 28 57.1% 14 31 45 6 18 5 12 Olivia Thompson 13 41 9 3 13 23.1% 3 13 23.1% 0 0 0.0% 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 Elysa Wesolek 21 78 13 5 12 41.7% 0 3 0.0% 3 4 75.0% 4 9 13 4 7 0 0 Raven Johnson 2 9 1 0 1 0.0% 0 0 0.0% 0 0 0.0% 0 1 1 0 1 0 0
Individual average per game
Aliyah Boston 37 28.5 54.2% 29.2% 77.1% 4.1 8.4 12.5 2.0 1.2 2.4 16.8 Destanni Henderson 34 31.0 40.3% 39.9% 72.1% 0.7 2.5 3.1 3.9 1.4 0.1 11.5 Zia Cooke 36 27.3 34.2% 28.7% 70.5% 0.4 1.7 2.1 1.7 0.6 0.1 10.7 Laeticia Amihere 31 16.8 43.6% 45.5% 65.1% 1.5 2.2 3.6 1.2 0.6 0.8 6.3 Victoria Saxton 37 21.5 50.3% 0.0% 64.2% 3.2 2.6 5.8 1.2 0.7 1.3 5.8 Kamilla Cardoso 32 13.4 55.3% 0.0% 71.7% 1.9 3.2 5.1 1.0 0.3 1.4 5.4 Brea Beal 37 24.1 38.1% 23.8% 59.6% 1.8 3.3 5.0 1.3 0.7 0.5 5.1 LeLe Grissett 25 12.3 42.3% 100% 50.0% 1.2 0.8 2.0 0.6 0.3 0.3 3.2 Bree Hall 36 9.1 31.4% 30.4% 63.3% 0.3 1.1 1.5 0.0 0.1 0.0 2.7 Destiny Littleton 31 9.1 35.7% 34.4% 75.0% 0.2 1.1 1.3 0.2 0.3 0.1 2.6 Saniya Rivers 27 12.9 24.5% 0.32% 50.0% 0.2 1.4 1.6 1.4 0.5 0.5 2.3 Eniya Russell 23 7.7 42.2% 41.7% 58.8% 0.2 1.1 1.3 0.8 0.2 0.1 2.3 Sania Feagin 31 4.3 61.8% 0.0% 57.1% 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.2 0.2 0.4 1.9 Olivia Thompson 13 3.7 23.1% 23.1% 0.0% 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.7 Elysa Wesolek 21 3.4 41.7% 0.0% 75.0% 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.6 Raven Johnson 2 4.5 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Rankings
+ Regular-season pollsPoll Pre-Season Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7 Week8 Week9 Week10 Week11 Week12 Week13 Week14 Week15 Week16 Week17 Week18 Week19 Final AP 1 (14) 1 (25) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (29) 1 (30) 1 (22) 1 (26) 1 (28) 1 (29) 1 (29) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (30) 1 (17) 1 (20) 1 (20) Coaches 1 (13) 1 (13) 1 (31) 1 (32) 1 (32) 1 (32) 1 (31) 1 (32) 1 (16) 1 (24) 1 (26) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (31) 1 (19) 1 (27) 1 (30) + Legend Increase in ranking Decrease in ranking Not ranked previous week RV Received votes NR Not ranked ( ) Number of first-place votes
Awards and honors Aliyah Boston Naismith Player of the Year United States Basketball Writers Association Player of the Year Wade Trophy John R. Wooden Award Ann Meyers Drysdale Women's Player of the Year Associated Press Player of the Year Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player Lisa Leslie Award Academic All-American of the Year Associated Press first-team All-American United States Basketball Writers Association first-team All-American Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-American SEC Player of the Year First-team All-SEC SEC Defensive Player of the Year SEC All-Defensive Team Destanni Henderson United States Basketball Writers Association third-team All-American First-team All-SEC Zia Cooke Second-team All-SEC Dawn Staley Naismith College Coach of the Year WBCA National Coach of the Year Award USBWA Women's National Coach of the Year SEC Coach of the Year
See also 2021–22 South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball team
References