COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Immediately, the chemistry was obvious.
Ta’Niya Latson came in and then gave it back to Raven Johnson for an open 3-pointer that the senior guard launched. On South Carolina’s next possession, Johnson returned 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 follow her path,” Johnson said of Latson. “It’s like that. Honestly, she brings out the best in me. She makes me play harder.”
Johnson’s drive to find Latson developed years ago. If it seemed like this pair of guards had played with each other before, that’s because they had. At Westlake High School, outside Atlanta, on the edge of Georgia’s I-285, 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. In South Carolina, Johnson won crucial victories on big stages in front of large audiences. Despite the endorsements and points he had accumulated in Tallahassee, Latson wanted what Johnson had. He wanted to be part of special teams that competed 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 to be national championship contenders. The Seminoles’ highest ranking 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 poorly covered. Over the past three years, FSU has 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 do it. Johnson told him everything he needed to know about the three-time national champions, the team that won nine of the last 11 SEC tournaments and the program that reached five consecutive Final Fours.
On Monday night, in his first game in a South Carolina uniform, Latson could hear and feel the roar of the crowd at Colonial Life Arena. She scored 20 points and four assists as No. 2 South Carolina escaped the Grand Canyon to win 94-54. It was a night where Latson had his cake and ate it too: he earned a victory in front of more than 15,000 fans, got his stats and finally got to play alongside Johnson again in a meaningful game.
As the oldest player on South Carolina’s roster, Johnson seemed poised, calm and collected in Monday night’s season opener, and elated to play with Latson. En route to 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Johnson hit 3-pointers with three points, a career-high in a single game.
“I feel like we have an invisible thread on the court. We find each other, we always look for each other. The chemistry is there. It’s been there since high school,” Latson said of Johnson. “So, just watching her make 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 last two seasons as an assistant at South Carolina, often working closely with point 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 both ways,” Gandy said. “She’s the best in the business… Her offense powered a lot of other offenses. Her passing ability, her ability to see the game, her pace, her tempo… Everybody would love to have a Raven.”
Tessa Johnson also played well, recording 19 points, five rebounds and three assists, often showing smoothness, control and other attributes that will likely one day make her a first-round WNBA Draft pick.
The result and the statistics that accompanied it for the Gamecocks could be an indicator of how they would need to play this season to be successful. While Staley was a star guard in her college playing days (two-time National Player of the Year, three-time All-American and 1991 Virginia Final Four Most Outstanding Player), her South Carolina teams have relied heavily 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 last decade, from A’ja Wilson to Aliyah Boston to Kamilla Cardoso. For South Carolina, the offense ran through them and the defense anchored themselves in their presence.
Only in recent seasons have the Gamecocks been able to count on standouts like Sania Feagin, Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts in the paint. But Feagin is playing professionally now, and Kitts and Watkins will be out all year with injuries.
Staley signed Mississippi State transfer Madina Okot and brought back SEC freshman pick Joyce Edwards. There will be times this season when South Carolina will have to rely on them to control the boards, protect the rim and drive the ball inside in certain matchups, but most of the skill, experience and reliability on this roster appears to lie in the backcourt with Johnson, Johnson and Latson, a trio of names that sounds like a law firm, but argue their cases on the court instead of inside a room, shooting 3-pointers and slick passes instead of filing lawsuits.
Leaning on her guard play is an adjustment Staley knows she and this team will have to make. At one point in the game, with foul trouble plaguing South Carolina’s posts, he had to switch to a four-guard lineup. That’s not something they’ve practiced, Staley says, but he acknowledges it probably won’t be the last time people see the Gamecocks resort to it.
“We have to do it again, because teams will play small ball to us,” Staley said. “We just have to get used to it.”
Okot finished with 12 points and four rebounds in 17 minutes in his South Carolina debut. Last season at Mississippi State, he averaged a double-double in the SEC. Edwards scored 13 points and five rebounds in 27 minutes.
While Staley knows she has a trio of incredibly talented guards and is comfortable counting on them, she also believes she needs more from her spots.
“We need Madina to be dominant. There’s no question about it. I don’t think we’ll get very far if we don’t get her to contribute a little more than she’s doing,” Staley said. “But again, it’s new, so, you know, it’s going to take her some time to get there, and we’re going to push her toward that. I hope she didn’t like her play (tonight).”
Added Staley: “You can go pretty far with good guard play, but at some point you need the big guys to come alive.”
But until that happens, playing through the guards proved to be a potent plan of attack for South Carolina. The Gamecocks hit nine 3-pointers against the Lopes and dished out 19 assists. Last season, they only reached those marks together in five games.
As he works on four new starters and gets Okot up to speed, Staley finds some comfort in knowing he has the built-in cohesion of Latson and Raven Johnson, and the elevated play of Tessa Johnson, to depend on.
“That’s something we can accumulate,” Staley said. “We just have to start connecting. It’s going to take us a little time to create the chemistry we need to be better, especially defensively… It’s not our normal way of doing things, but it’s the cards we’ve been dealt.”
After congratulating Raven while answering a question from a reporter at the postgame press conference, Latson and Johnson looked at each other and smiled. The two former Westlake teammates leaned toward each other and Johnson put his arm around Latson. Their bond is real and could be what propels South Carolina back to the top of women’s college basketball this season.