Milaysia Fulwiley Channels Lebron James And Steph Curry In A Pair Of Memorable Highlights

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

As she has all season long for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks, MiLaysia Fulwiley created a pair of highlight-worthy plays in the SEC Tournament vs. Vanderbilt.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Vanderbilt had stormed back. With freshman phenom Mikayla Blakes leading the charge, the Commodores had gotten within striking distance of top-seeded South Carolina’s lead in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks held on to a slim advantage, 68-63, with just over four minutes to play after Blakes swished a 3-pointer.

And then Dawn Staley’s squad stepped on the gas, finishing the game on a 16-0 run, taking an 84-63 victory inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Friday.

The box score will show that South Carolina junior forward Chloe Kitts was the best player on the floor during the Friday afternoon matinee, finishing with 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds. And indeed, Kitts’ play was crucial to help the No. 1 Gamecocks pull away from Vanderbilt’s upset bid.

But so often in this game — and frequently over the course of this season, too — the player who injected life and energy into South Carolina with head-turning feats of athleticism, highlight worthy plays and incredible instincts was sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley, the SEC Sixth Player of the Year.

Fulwiley, who was the SEC Tournament MVP here last year as a freshman, made an impact every time she stepped on the floor Friday. Her playmaking abilities sparked her team, her finishes on fast breaks made her teammates cheer, and her deft passing abilities made the crowd roar.

“She sees things out there that no one else sees,” Staley said of Fulwiley. “So, she’s got to train people to play with her.”

A prime example came during South Carolina’s decisive game-sealing run in the fourth quarter, after the Gamecocks corralled an offensive rebound following a missed free throw by Kitts. Fulwiley caught the ball near mid-court, dribbled around one defender, accelerated and drove by another, and just before bumping into a third Commodore with two others ready to collapse on her in the paint, she whipped the ball around her back with her right hand, delivering a perfect no-look pass to a wide-open Sania Feagin who connected on a layup with ease.

“The behind-the-back pass, coach drew it up for me to go — she didn’t say score or shoot,” Fulwiley said. “I realized that if I attack middle, something would open up. I seen Sania from the corner of my eye, so I just threw it and she finished it.”

Staley added: “Sometimes a simple pass will do. Sometimes, like the behind-the-back pass, that was really the only pass — the only pass that she could deliver the ball. I know that because I’ve done plenty behind-the-back passes.”

It was a dime that would’ve made Steve Nash blush, and it gave the Gamecocks a 14-point lead with about 100 seconds to play. Simply put, the game was over and Fulwiley was a big reason why.

Fulwiley finished the game with 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and four steals in 23 minutes of action. All three of the Columbia, South Carolina native’s dimes came during the Gamecocks’ late-game surge. Fulwiley scored the final points of the game too, grabbing an offensive rebound off Bree Hall’s miss and putting the ball in the bucket with an easy layup.

The no-look passes are something that Fulwiley practices. She’ll often break them out when the Gamecocks are running through transition drills. And with Feagin in particular — the 6-foo-3 senior with an even larger wingspan — Fulwiley has developed chemistry and trust with her.

“I just hope and pray that they catch it and they make the shot,” Fulwiley told SB Nation. “And with Sania, I feel like we do that a lot. I kind of seen her out of the corner of my eye, and I knew she was going to finish it. So, we have that kind of connection. She’s ready for anything.”

Fulwiley said she really started developing a confidence in attempting those bold and flashy passes in the seventh grade. The first time she tried it was in an effort to imitate a player she looked up to, LeBron James.

“I was a huge fan of LeBron, but...” Fulwiley pauses. “I’m a Curry fan now, for sure.”

And Fulwiley did her best imitation of Steph in this game too. With 3.4 seconds left in the first quarter, she stripped possession away from a Vanderbilt player, ran to the right wing on the opposite end and pulled up from 3-point range. As the buzzer sounded, her shot fell harmlessly through the hoop, capping off a 13-4 run for the Gamecocks.

“I seen how (Vannderbilt’s Leilani Kapinus) was dribbling like, casually,” Fulwiley explained. “And so I was like, ‘I might as well just try to take the ball.’ And then when I took it, I was like, ‘Well, I have to shoot it.”

Fulwiley is more than comfortable shooting in this 15,000-seat arena.

As a high schooler — long before she had an NIL endorsement deal with the Curry Brand, as she was blossoming into one of the top 15 prospects in the 2023 recruiting class — she helped Richland County’s W. J. Keenan High School win multiple state championships here. Fulwiley became her high school’s starting point guard as an eighth grader, evoking local coaches to compare her to Ivory Latta. A native of McConnells, South Carolina, Latta owned the high school circuit in the state before going on to lead the UNC Tar Heels to three ACC titles and a pair of Final Four berths two decades ago.

Fulwiley could be well on her way to helping South Carolina win a second conference tournament crown and make another trip to the Final Four.

“MiLaysia is a talent, generational talent,” Staley said. “When I say that she can do things on the basketball court that I haven’t seen a female do... When she has got it going on, she pumps tempo. Her speed to me is her superpower. No one on the court can keep in front of her when she’s got it going on.”

And when Fulwiley has got it going on, South Carolina is mighty difficult to beat.