South Carolina will meet North Carolina in Charlotte on Sunday, Nov. 8, with the No. 1 Gamecocks facing the No. 12/11 Tar Heels in the Ally Tipoff. The second game of the doubleheader at Spectrum Center is set for 5:30 p.m. ET on.
The matchup gives South Carolina another ranked test early in the season, and it comes after the Gamecocks opened with 101 points against Maryland. That performance marked the program’s 10th game over the century mark since Nov. 7, 2025, and it was the sixth 100-point effort against a ranked opponent in program history, all of them coming in the Dawn Staley era. Agot Makeer was central to that burst, scoring a career-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting and making all four of her 3-point attempts. She hit her first two 3s in the opening two minutes and finished as one of several South Carolina players who forced Maryland to chase the game from the start.
South Carolina is back in the Ally Tipoff for the second time in the last three seasons, and the event already has a place in the program’s schedule beyond Sunday. The Gamecocks are committed to the Ally Tipoff for the next two seasons, with UConn set for 2027 and NC State in 2028. South Carolina won 71-57 in its first trip to the event on Nov. 10, 2024, so this is not just a neutral-site game; it is another stop in a stretch of marquee dates built around top competition.
That history is part of what makes the meeting sharper than the rankings alone. South Carolina has won the last four games in the series, including three NCAA Tournament matchups, yet the border rivalry remains tied 11-11. The last loss for South Carolina came in the 2014 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, and the teams last met in the 2023-24 season when South Carolina pulled out a comeback win at North Carolina in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Nov. 30, 2023. North Carolina gets another chance to bend that trend on Sunday, but South Carolina has already shown this season that it can pile up points quickly against elite opposition.
That is why this game matters now: a top-ranked team, a ranked opponent, a neutral floor and a series that has stayed even despite South Carolina’s recent run. If North Carolina wants to change the pattern, it has to do it in Charlotte, on, against a team that has already answered one early test with 101 points and is set up for more of them.
