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What Dawn Staley said inspired Raven Johnson's fourth-quarter takeover for South Carolina vs Texas
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- What Dawn Staley said inspired Raven Johnson's fourth-quarter takeover for South Carolina vs Texas
COLUMBIA — South Carolina women's basketball's starting point guard Raven Johnson wasn't going to lose a top-5 matchup in Colonial Life Arena.
With a three-point lead, one minute to play and nine seconds on the shot clock, Johnson faked back to the middle of the paint to throw off Texas ' Rori Harmon , then scooped into a layup to give South Carolina 's its largest lead (five) of the game.
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Her two arms briefly flexed but it wasn't time to celebrate yet. After Texas made it a single-possession game again, Johnson dribbled down the clock once more, inviting Harmon to defend closer.
She went behind the back and leaned into a jump shot with 23.1 seconds left. She scored six points in the fourth quarter to guide the No. 2 Gamecocks (18-1, 5-0 SEC) to a 68-65 win over the No. 4 Longhorns (18-2, 3-2).
Johnson finished with 10 points, six assists, four rebounds and a block.
"When they blow up some of your teammates you got to put your head down and create," Johnson said after scoring or assisting on 12 of South Carolina's 20 fourth-quarter points.
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After the game, coach Dawn Staley asked Johnson what she was thinking during the fourth quarter, and Johnson said the overthrown insert pass she tried to give Joyce Edwards with 4:57 left and the game tied really bothered her.
"So I guess that meant 'I'm going to shoot it (rather) than pass it' and she delivered," Staley said.
Johnson came into the game averaging 10.2 points, more than double the amount she averaged in 2024-25. Her performance vs Texas moved her up to No. 5 all time for career assists in South Carolina's record books with 510.
The low-scoring game was partly due to poor protection of the ball from both teams. Texas averaged 10.5 turnovers per game and South Carolina averaged 12.5 coming into the matchup, but the Gamecocks had 20 turnovers and the Longhorns had 22.
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Some turnovers were produced by high-pressure man defense from both sides. Johnson led the Gamecocks to pick up ball pressure right above half court, and she balanced between guarding Harmon and Madison Booker, Texas' star forward.
In the second half, the Longhorns had eight turnovers, three in the final quarter.
"I think our defense was really solid," Johnson said. "It came down to will and grit, I think we did a good job at executing the things that coach wanted."
Johnson's position requires her to command control even when chaos ensues.
Tessa Johnson was called for a charge to start the fourth quarter.
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Thirty seconds later, trailing by three, Johnson found Edwards inside the paint and Edwards proceeded to get herself to the free throw line. Not only did those two shots cut the deficit to one but it got Edwards going.
South Carolina's leading scorer had only eight points through three quarters despite averaging 20.1 per game. After that pass from Johnson, Edwards scored three more huge buckets and finished with 14.
"We didn't want to lose in CLA, in front of all these fans .. we dug deep and we got the win, I'm really proud of this team," Johnson said.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at LKesin@usatodayco.com . Follow her on X @Lulukesin and Bluesky @bylulukesin.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Raven Johnson takes over for South Carolina vs Texas in fourth quarter
