COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball fans want a lot of things to happen during this year’s Women’s NCAA Tournament.
In addition to the Gamecocks making a sixth straight Final Four and winning a fourth national championship, fans want to see a dunk from Alicia Tournebize.
Advertisement
Tournebize is 6-foot-7, playing in her first tournament with South Carolina after joining the team in January. She’s an 18-year-old freshman from France, where she played professionally before switching to the college level.
She’s dunked before but not in a college game with South Carolina. In practice for March Madness on March 20, she went up for a one-handed dunk during a drill with ease.
Tournebize and the Gamecocks (31-3) are a No. 1 seed, hosting No. 16 seed Southern (20-13) in Colonial Life Arena on March 21 (1 p.m. ET, ABC) to start March Madness.
Fans immediately started replying to the video on social media, requesting that she dunk in a game.
Advertisement
Tournebize’s first game was Jan. 15 against Texas and her minutes have slowly increased as she’s gotten more comfortable. In the SEC Tournament championship against the Longhorns, she had six points, seven rebounds and one assist in 19 minutes.
She’s averaging 4.1 points and 2.7 rebounds, with her career-high nine against Oklahoma on Jan. 22.
“Ali is on an upward trajectory, it’s taken the normal time. I actually think she’s a little bit further along than we thought she would,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “Some of that is just throwing her out there. Some of that is just holding her out to see, to not put her in a situation where you’re hurting her confidence.
“But I think she’s a pretty confident young lady although she’s, as I say, a whole lot. You can see it in her play. She’s unbothered out there. I think she’s self-assured.”
Advertisement
Where Alicia Tournebize dunk would rank in March Madness history
Tennessee’s Candace Parker was the first woman to dunk in a March Madness game, and the first to dunk twice in a tournament game. Brittney Griner holds the record for most dunks in the Women’s NCAA Tournament with six, according to the NCAA record book.
In 2022, Stanford’s Fran Belibi became just the third player in women’s college history to dunk in March Madness.
If Tournebize does dunk, she would be the fourth.
Ashlyn Watkins, who took this year off but is set to return for 2026-17, has dunked three times for South Carolina and is one of nine women to dunk in an NCAA game.
Advertisement
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: Alicia Tournebize dunks before first South Carolina March Madness game
