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South Carolina women's basketball: Dawn Staley's 200 SEC wins by the numbers

On3 imageby:Chris Wellbaum•01/03/25•

ChrisWellbaum

Dawn Staley
(Kirby Lee | USA TODAY Sports)

South Carolina’s 83-52 win over Missouri on Thursday gave Dawn Staley 200 career SEC wins. Take a look back at how she got to this point.

Staley’s career SEC record is 200-55. She is the active wins leader and only trails Georgia’s Andy Landers (273) and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (306).

Staley has a career SEC winning percentage of .784, second only to Summitt’s .874 among coaches with at least three seasons in the conference. 

Staley also has a career average of 12.4 SEC wins per season, which is an SEC best. However, it’s worth noting that the SEC didn’t even play 12 conference games in a season until 1997.

First SEC win
Staley’s first SEC win was a 76-67 win at Ole Miss on January 22, 2009. It was bittersweet – senior Demetress Adams suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half. Senior Brionna Dickerson, who suffered her own season-ending knee injury in the next game, scored a career-high 31 to lead South Carolina to the win. 

The Gamecocks finished just 2-12 in the SEC in Staley’s first season, with the only other win coming over last-place Alabama (1-13). South Carolina improved to 7-9 and then 8-8 the next two seasons for a three-year total of 17 wins. Since then South Carolina has gone 16-0 four times.

[USC-Texas WBB: Win tickets, parking pass]

Reaching .500
On January 5, 2014, South Carolina beat Vanderbilt 76-66. That win evened Staley’s SEC record at 40-40. She won the next two games and 12 of the next 13, never coming close to .500 again

50th SEC win
Staley’s 50th SEC win came at arch-rival Kentucky on February 20, 2014. The Gamecocks won 81-58 and Aleighsa Welch scored her 1,000th career point. South Carolina also won 12 SEC games in a season for the first time. 

100th SEC win
Staley needed two cracks at win 100. The Gamecocks lost their first attempt 83-74 at Missouri as A’ja Wilson fouled out and Staley was ejected late in the game. The next game, South Carolina beat Auburn 71-63 on January 11, 2018, to get to the century mark. Wilson and Ty Harris each had double-doubles in the win.

150th SEC win
Staley’s 150th win came in an empty arena during the 2020-21 pandemic season. The Gamecocks beat LSU 66-59 in front of a raucous bunch of cutouts in Columbia. Destanni Henderson scored 19 points and Aliyah Boston had 12 pints, 13 rebounds, and six blocks. It was also South Carolina’s 31st consecutive SEC win, a streak that would end the next game against Tennessee.

200th SEC win
This one was a breeze, as South Carolina pulled away from rival Missouri for an 83-52 rout. It also added to the Gamecocks’ SEC-record 48-game conference winning streak.

SEC wins by team
Alabama 19-0 (1.000)
Arkansas 16-3 (0.842)
Auburn 17-3 (0.850)
Florida 16-4 (0.800)
Georgia 15-5 (0.750)
Kentucky 23-9 (0.719)
LSU 15-5 (0.750)
Miss. State 13-5 (0.722)
Missouri 11-4 (0.733)
Ole Miss 18-2 (0.900)
Tennessee 9-11 (0.450)
Texas A&M 11-3 (0.786)
Vanderbilt 17-2 (0.895)

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