South Carolina women's basketball: Kierra Fletcher found the perfect fit
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South Carolina didn’t make a huge splash in the transfer portal this past offseason (unless you count departures), but the Gamecocks found the perfect piece to their jigsaw puzzle in Kierra Fletcher.
The Gamecocks return four starters and most of their reserves, plus add two top-15 freshmen. But the one departing starter, Destanni Henderson, left a huge hole to fill.
With Henderson gone, South Carolina’s most experienced point guard is Laeticia Amihere, the power forward who ran point for three games last season when Henderson was injured.
South Carolina has incredibly high expectations for redshirt freshman Raven Johnson, who is the only point guard on the roster. But she played just eight minutes last season before a torn ACL ended her freshman year. South Carolina needed another point guard, the last piece to finishing the puzzle. Enter Fletcher, the perfect fit.
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Fletcher was a four-year starter at Georgia Tech. She was an ACC All-Freshman selection and a three-time member of the All-ACC Academic team. For her career, Fletcher started 111 of the 113 games she played and averaged 9.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.4 steals. In her senior season, she averaged 13.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.7 assists and led the Yellow Jackets to the Sweet 16 where they lost to the Gamecocks. She opted to return for a fifth season, but a foot injury ended her year before it began and Fletcher entered the transfer portal during the season.
Fletcher visited South Carolina late in the season, and quickly made her decision, committing the day after the national championship game. She could have gone to any number of other programs, including places where she would have been assured of starting. But she knew immediately she had found the perfect fit in Columbia.
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Fletcher felt a connection with Dawn Staley and thought she would fit in well with the team. Off the court, South Carolina offered Fletcher an opportunity to pursue her degree in criminology. Staley, who is an honorary deputy in the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and friends with Sheriff Leon Lott, was able to connect Fletcher and Lott and help her get an internship.
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“On the visit, me and coach had a lot in common, a lot, a lot, a lot in common,” Fletcher said. “The team, when I was on my visit, I liked them a lot too, so on my visit, I knew this was the place I wanted to be.”
The Gamecocks were involved with some bigger names as they sifted through the transfer portal, including another point guard, All-American Dyaisha Fair. But the Gamecocks ended up signing just one player, the relatively unknown Fletcher.
Staley wants to get Zia Cooke ready to play point guard this season. That might be with an eye toward the WNBA, where teams would likely want Cooke to be a point guard. Or it could be simply wanting to make sure the Gamecocks are not caught short-handed again. Either way, Cooke should be the third point guard behind Johnson and Fletcher. In the meantime Staley is giving Fletcher a crash course in Gamecock basketball.
“She’s very, very detail-oriented and I love that,” Fletcher said. “She’ll stop something and make sure you get it right and that’s something I really admire about her. She wants us to get things right before we move on.”
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Long term, Johnson is the Gamecocks’ starting point guard. Short term, it’s still up in the air. Neither Johnson nor Fletcher is at full speed yet, and the Gamecocks have traditionally been very cautious in bringing players back from injury. Health could determine who starts the season-opener, although Fletcher admitted she doesn’t completely grasp the entire playbook yet.
“It’s kind of hard because I’m still learning the system,” she said. “I can see that I can facilitate with the guards that we have on the team, the bigs that we have on the team. The style of play that we have, it opens up the floor a lot more. I think there will be a lot of opportunities for all of us to score in many different ways.”
