COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball announced Thursday that its exhibition game on Oct. 15 against Memphis will be part of the Hoops for St. Jude Tip Off Classic.
The inaugural event features a doubleheader for the Memphis men’s and women’s basketball teams. The men will host North Carolina and the Gamecocks will play the Tigers (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) at FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.
The event will be in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and 100% of the proceeds will be benefitting St. Jude.
In 2022, the Gamecocks beat the Tigers 79-54 in a non-conference game in Columbia. According to The Memphis Commercial Appeal, the second game of the home-and-home deal was originally scheduled for the 2023-24 season but last summer, the schools agreed to bump it to the 2024-25 season, before it became the exhibition game.
DETAILS: Memphis vs. South Carolina women’s basketball at FedExForum switched to an exhibition game
South Carolina begins its 2024-25 season with all but one player from the undefeated championship team, which marked the third national title for coach Dawn Staley. Kamilla Cardoso, the former starting center, was drafted by the Chicago Sky in the 2024 WNBA draft and is nearing the close of her rookie season. The Gamecocks landed forward Maryam Dauda from Arkansas via the transfer portal in May, and have two new freshmen, Maddy McDaniel and Joyce Edwards.
Junior forward Ashlyn Watkins is suspended from team activities as of last week, following her arrest on Aug. 31, on charges of first-degree assault and battery and kidnapping. Watkins, 20, is scheduled to make a court appearance on Oct. 25, 10 days after the exhibition game.
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South Carolina women’s basketball 2024-25 schedule
Here is the updated schedule for the Gamecocks as of Thursday morning:
Non-conference (yet to be finalized)
- Oct. 15 at Memphis (exhibition)
- Nov. 4 vs. Michigan (in Las Vegas)
- Nov. 10 vs. NC State (in Charlotte, North Carolina)
- Nov. 17 vs. East Carolina
- Nov. 24 at UCLA
- Nov. 28 vs. Iowa State (in Fort Myers, Florida)
- Nov. 30 vs. Purdue (in Fort Myers, Florida)
- Dec. 5 vs. Duke
- Dec. 8 at TCU
- Dec. 15 vs. USF
- Dec. 19 vs. Charleston Southern
- Dec. 29 vs. Wofford
- Feb. 16 vs. UConn
SEC schedule
- Jan. 2 at Missouri
- Jan. 5 at Mississippi State
- Jan. 9 vs. Texas A&M
- Jan. 12 vs. Texas
- Jan. 16 at Alabama
- Jan. 19 vs. Oklahoma
- Jan. 23 LSU
- Jan. 27 at Tennessee
- Feb. 2 vs. Auburn
- Feb. 6 at Georgia
- Feb. 9 at Texas
- Feb. 13 vs. Florida
- Feb. 20 vs. Arkansas
- Feb. 23 at Vanderbilt
- Feb. 27 at Ole Miss
- March 2 vs. Kentucky
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
