Maryland Terrapins vs South Carolina Gamecocks Prediction, Odds, Best Bets - Week 1

The women's season gets its biggest opener in Paris, where No. 1 South Carolina faces No. 20 Maryland in the Oui-Play doubleheader. South Carolina brings back the core of a 36-win team that played for the national title, while Maryland counters with an All-Big Ten backcourt that scores in bunches.

The Matchup

The women's college basketball season opens its biggest stage in Paris on Monday, where No. 1 South Carolina meets No. 20 Maryland at Adidas Arena in the Oui-Play doubleheader, with South Carolina a 14.5-point favorite, a total of 148.5 and the Gamecocks at -900 on the moneyline. Both teams are 0-0, so last season is the starting point, and it says South Carolina was the best team in the country for most of it.

The Gamecocks finished 36-4, scoring 85.6 points per game and allowing 57.8, and they reached the national championship game before losing to UCLA. Maryland finished 24-9, scoring 82.3 and allowing 63.7. Those are last season's numbers, and both rosters look different now, but the shape of the matchup survived the summer. South Carolina defends like nobody else in this sport, and Maryland scores like few teams can.

Maryland's backcourt is why the Terrapins are dangerous in a one-game opener. Senior guard Oluchi Okananwa averaged 17.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals last season, shot 51.8 percent from the field, started all 33 games and made the All-Big Ten First Team and the league's All-Defensive Team.

Sophomore guard Addi Mack averaged 11.0 points as a freshman and shot 85.7 percent from the free throw line, and senior forward Nunu Agara arrived from Stanford, where she led the Cardinal in scoring last season. Okananwa, Mack and Agara carry no injury designations for Monday.

South Carolina's best player is junior forward Joyce Edwards, who averaged 19.2 points and 6.8 rebounds last season, shot 57.1 percent from the field and played in all 40 games for a team that lost four times all year. Edwards carries no injury designation either.

Around her, Dawn Staley brings back a rotation that blocked 6.1 shots per game and held opponents to 57.8 points a night, the kind of defense that usually travels. What South Carolina does not get in Paris is a home crowd. This is a neutral floor in France, and Colonial Life Arena is an ocean away.

Key Factors

Fourteen and a half points is a blowout price, and South Carolina spent last season earning prices like it, outscoring its opponents by 27.8 points per game across the full season. But openers are not conference games in February. Rotations are new, shooting legs are fresh off a transatlantic flight, and the favorite's edge shows up in shorter bursts.

Maryland does not need to be better than South Carolina on Monday. The Terrapins need to stay within two touchdowns of them for forty minutes, with an offense that averaged 82.3 points a game last season and guards who can score late in the clock when sets break down.

Maryland's pressure is the second piece. The Terrapins averaged 10.2 steals per game last season, and Okananwa's 2.2 per game led a defense built to speed teams up.

South Carolina protects the ball well, so this is no sure thing, but every live-ball turnover is worth double in a game like this one: it is a Maryland runout and a possession where South Carolina's half-court defense, the best in the country last season, never gets set. Maryland also won the rebounding battle in 27 of its 33 games last season, and second chances are how underdogs keep favorites from pulling away.

The honest counterpoint is Edwards and the South Carolina frontcourt. Edwards scores inside against everyone, Maryland has no proven answer for her at 57.1 percent shooting, and if she gets Maryland's bigs in foul trouble early, the Terrapins' defense loses the size it needs to finish possessions. South Carolina also won the last six meetings between these programs.

The most recent one, though, was a 71-67 game in the 2025 Sweet 16, decided in the final minute, and that is the version of this matchup the spread has to argue against. Fourteen and a half points says Monday looks nothing like that game. A neutral floor, a season opener and a Maryland team that can score say it can look very much like it.

Every pick is published with its line before the game. Odds via consensus sportsbooks at time of writing and move constantly. Must be 21+. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.