South Carolina women's basketball freshman Raven Johnson is out for the season after suffering a left knee injury Friday in the Gamecocks' victory over South Dakota.
Johnson was ranked as the No. 2 recruit from the class of 2021 by ESPN HoopGurlz. South Carolina did not say specifically what the injury was.
She was injured with just under 4 minutes left in the first period of the No. 1 Gamecocks' 72-41 win in the Mammoth Sports Construction Invitational in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She was in the game for only one minute.
The 5-foot-8 guard from Atlanta, the Naismith and WBCA high school player of the year in 2021, won four Georgia state championships at Westlake High School. She came off the bench in South Carolina's first two games.
Johnson was the top-ranked point guard by HoopGurlz and trailed only UConn guard Azzi Fudd on the overall top 100. The Gamecocks' 2021 recruiting class was the nation's top ranked, as it also includes No. 3 Saniya Rivers, No. 4 Sania Feagin and No. 14 Bree Hall.
The Gamecocks have depth at guard, with senior Destanni Henderson (14.5 PPG) and junior Zia Cooke (13.5 PPG) the team's leading scorers. But South Carolina also saw Johnson as a potentially big contributor this season.
"I'm obviously heartbroken for Raven," coach Dawn Staley said in a statement. "Everyone could see what she added to our basketball team this year, and a lot of that are the intangibles that will also guide her through the recovery process.
"Her tenacity and competitiveness will be put to use in a different way than she had planned this year, but they will sustain her, as will the support of her teammates and our coaching and medical staffs."
South Carolina, 2-0, has its home opener vs. Clemson at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday. Then the Gamecocks will go to the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, where they will play Buffalo on Saturday and ultimately could face No. 2 UConn.
