USC WBB lost four to transfer portal in 2022. How those former Gamecocks are doing
South Carolina returned 10 of the 16 players from last year’s national championship team, with four players leaving through the transfer portal.
Those players went to schools all across the country. One remained in the SEC.
Here’s a look at how last year’s Gamecocks are doing for the 2022-23 women’s basketball season.
Destiny Littleton, Southern Cal
Littleton is a two-time transfer, joining South Carolina in 2019 after departing from Texas. She’s finishing up her college playing days with the Trojans at Southern Cal.
She’s averaging 13.9 points, 3.8 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game with the Trojans, starting in all 25 games. Littleton scored a season-high 21 points in back-to-back games against Colorado and Arizona State.
Littleton wasn’t much of a scorer at her previous stops. With South Carolina, she averaged just 2.6 points per game in 10.2 minutes of playing time. Now, she’s the Trojans’ second-leading scorer and leader in assists.
Southern Cal came in at No. 25 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Trojans are a projected No. 8 seed in the Greenville region of the NCAA tournament. The team’s best win came against then-No. 2 Stanford, and Littleton scored 18 points in that game.
Saniya Rivers, NC State
Rivers played her freshman year as a Gamecock before leaving for N.C. State.
With the Wolfpack, she’s averaging 8.5 points per game on 47% shooting. Rivers rounds out her statline with 4.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
Rivers poured in 22 points in N.C. State’s early-season win against Iowa. She grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds in her most recent game against Virginia.
Rivers joined USC as a five-star recruit and No. 3 player in the Class of 2021 from Wilmington, North Carolina. She was a three-time Gatorade Player of the Year in North Carolina and was named Gatorade’s top player nationally in 2020-21.
She didn’t play much last season in South Carolina’s crowded guard rotation, and the rigorous non-conference schedule didn’t leave much room for the younger players to get much in-game experience.
She’s seen an increase in her development in Raleigh this season.
Eniya Russell, Kentucky
Still in the SEC, Russell now competes for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Russell’s seen a slight increase in her numbers from last year, averaging 3.6 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. She averages 10.7 minutes per game in 17 appearances.
Her lone double-digit scoring game this year (14 points) came against Ohio in December. She had two such games as a Gamecock, both of which came in her freshman year.
Russell played in both of South Carolina’s games against Kentucky this year. The Wildcats have struggled, with a 2-10 conference record keeping them near the bottom of the SEC.
Elysa Wesolek, North Florida
Originally from Charleston, Wesolek played four seasons at South Carolina.
At USC, she mostly played in the late stretches of games when they were already decided, and she totaled 71 career appearances as a Gamecock.
Now with North Florida, she’s seen a role increase. She’s scoring an average of 7.6 points in 19.5 minutes per game. She’s started in seven of the 22 games this season with the Ospreys.
North Florida has a 6-17 record and is last in the ASUN conference standings.
