COLUMBIA, S.C. — Right away, the chemistry was obvious.
Ta’Niya Latson drove inside, then dished it back to Raven Johnson for a wide-open 3-pointer that the veteran guard swished. On South Carolina’s next possession, it was Johnson repaying the favor, grabbing a defensive rebound and tossing it up the court for Latson for an easy transition layup.
“She makes things easier. My instinct is to go her way,” Johnson said of Latson. “It’s like that. She brings out the best in me, honestly. She makes me play harder.”
Johnson’s impulse to find Latson was developed years ago. If it felt like these pair of guards had played with each other before, it’s because they have. At Westlake High School — just outside of Atlanta, Georgia’s I-285 perimeter — Johnson and Latson shared the backcourt on two teams that won state championships.
Then they spent a few years apart. Johnson joined the South Carolina Gamecocks and, due to an injury, watched from the bench as they won the national title in 2022. Meanwhile, Latson finished her high school career in Plantation, Florida and was named the state’s top player. Latson became a star at Florida State, winning the USBWA Tamika Catchings Award as a freshman and leading the nation in scoring last season as a junior. Johnson became the Gamecocks starting point guard and helped South Carolina win a third national title in 2024.
At FSU, Latson had the stats. At South Carolina, Johnson had the crucial victories on big stages in front of large audiences. Despite the accolades and points that she had piled up in Tallahassee, Latson wanted what Johnson had. She wanted to be part of special teams that contended for championships.
While Florida State went to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments during Latson’s time there, no one who paid attention to women’s college basketball ever considered them a national championship contender. The highest the Seminoles were ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll during Latson’s three years was 12th, and they never advanced to the second weekend of March Madness. Florida State, while good in the ACC, was largely an afterthought on the national women’s college basketball scene. They were overlooked and under-covered. Over the past three years, FSU never averaged more than 2,500 fans per game in a single season.
And so, Latson entered the transfer portal last spring and committed to Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks without even visiting Columbia. She didn’t need to. Johnson told her everything she needed to know about the three-time national champions, the squad that’s won nine of the last 11 SEC Tournaments, and the program that’s gone to five consecutive Final Fours.
On Monday night in her first game in a South Carolina uniform, Latson got to hear and feel the full roar of the crowd at Colonial Life Arena. She tallied 20 points and four assists as No. 2 South Carolina ran away from Grand Canyon to win 94-54. It was a night where Latson got to have her cake and eat it too — she got a win in front of more than 15,000 fans, she got her stats, and she finally got to play alongside Johnson in a meaningful game again.
As the most veteran player on South Carolina’s roster, Johnson seemed cool, calm and composed in Monday night’s season-opener, and elated to play with Latson. En route to collecting 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Johnson knocked down a single-game career-high-tying 3-pointers with three.
“I feel like we have an invisible string on the court. We find each other, we’re always looking for each other. The chemistry is there. It’s been there since high school,” Latson said of Johnson. “So, just seeing her knock down shots, I’m really proud of her. I just want to see her win this season, and, you know, we’re going to do this together.
Winston Gandy is in his first season as Grand Canyon’s coach, but spent the past two seasons as an assistant with South Carolina, often working closely with guards like Johnson. He knows how important she is to the Gamecocks’ success, and had to game-plan for her for the first time.
“She’s a winner. You can’t shut her down, because she can impact the game in both ways,” Gandy said. “She is the best in the business… Her offense jumpstarted a lot of other people’s offense. Her ability to pass, her ability to see the game, her pace, her tempo… Everybody would love to have a Raven.”
Tessa Johnson played well too, registering 19 points, five rebounds and three assists, often flashing smoothness, control and other attributes that will likely one day make her a first round WNBA Draft pick.
The result and the stats that came with it for the Gamecocks could be an indicator of how they might have to play this season to be successful. While Staley was a stellar guard in her collegiate playing days — a two-time National Player of the Year, a three-time All-American, and the 1991 Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four for Virginia — her teams at South Carolina have largely leaned on strong post play on both ends of the floor. The Gamecocks have produced some of the best centers and forwards in the country over the past decade, from A’ja Wilson to Aliyah Boston to Kamilla Cardoso. For South Carolina, the offense ran through them and the defense was anchored by their presences.
Even in recent seasons, the Gamecocks could count on standouts like Sania Feagin, Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts in the paint. But Feagin is playing professionally now, and Kitts and Watkins are out for the year with injuries.
Staley brought in Mississippi State transfer Madina Okot and brought back SEC All-Freshman selection Joyce Edwards. There will be times this season where South Carolina will have to rely on them to control the boards, protect the rim and pound the ball inside against certain matchups, but the majority of skill, experience and reliability in this roster seems to reside in the backcourt with Johnson, Johnson and Latson — a trio of names that sounds like a law firm, but they argue their cases on the court rather than inside a courtroom, flinging 3-pointers and nifty passes instead of filing lawsuits.
Leaning on her guard play is an adjustment that Staley knows she and this team will have to make. At one point in the game, with foul trouble hounding South Carolina’s posts, she had to switch to a four-guard lineup. That’s not something they’ve practiced, Staley says, but she acknowledges that it likely won’t be the last time folks see the Gamecocks turn to it.
“We have to do it again, because teams will play small ball on us,” Staley said. “We just got to get used to it.”
Okot finished with 12 points and four rebounds in 17 minutes in her South Carolina debut. Last season at Mississippi State, she averaged a double-double in SEC play. Edwards had 13 points and five rebounds in 27 minutes.
While Staley knows she has an incredibly talented trio of guards and is comfortable counting on them, she also believes that she needs more from her posts.
“We need Madina to be dominant. No doubt about it. I don’t think we go very far if we don’t have her contribute a little more than what she’s doing,” Staley said. “But again, it’s new, so, you know, it’s going to take some time for her to get there, and we’re going to push her towards that. I’m hoping she didn’t like her play (tonight).”
Staley added: “You can go pretty far with good guard play, but at some point, you need the bigs to come alive.”
But until that happens, playing through the guards proved to be a potent plan of attack for South Carolina. The Gamecocks knocked down nine 3-pointers against the Lopes and dished out 19 assists. Last season, they only hit those marks together in five games.
While working in four new starters and getting Okot up-to-speed, Staley does find some solace in knowing that she has the already-built-in cohesion of Latson and Raven Johnson — and the raised play of Tessa Johnson — to depend on.
“That’s something that we can bank,” Staley said. “We just have to start connecting. It’s just going to take a little bit of time for us to create the chemistry that we need to be better, especially defensively… It’s not our normal way of doing things, but it’s the cards that we’ve been dealt.”
After complimenting Raven while responding to a question from a reporter in the postgame press conference, Latson and Johnson looked at each other and smiled. The two former Westlake teammates leaned into each other and Johnson threw her arm around Latson. Their bond is a real one, and it might be what powers South Carolina back to the top of women’s college basketball this season.
