Senior forward will miss 2025-2026 women’s basketball season.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Chloe Kitts will miss the 2025-2026 women’s basketball season after being diagnosed with a torn ACL in her right knee. Surgery has been scheduled for this week.
Head coach Dawn Staley said, “We hate this first for Chloe, who has worked incredibly hard to become the best version of herself on the court this season. Her teammates are capable of stepping up, and I know that her competitive fire and tenacity will be felt from the sidelines as she pours what she can into them to ensure our team’s success.”
The Gamecock senior forward had been a starter for the last two seasons, helping the team win back-to-back national title game appearances, including the 2024 National Championship. Kitts’ stats include career scoring and rebounding highs — 10.2 ppg, 7.7 rpg — that earned her honorable mention All-America honors.
She earned MVP honors at the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Birmingham 2 Regional. During the 2025 SEC Tournament, Kitts is on the record books for the most made field goals in a single SEC Tournament (23 in 3 games).
South Carolina, the reigning SEC regular-season and tournament champ, unofficially opens the season with an exhibition against Anderson at Colonial Life Arena at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 24. The game is free to attend.
Chloe Kitts injury update. South Carolina star out for season with ACL tear
COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball star forward Chloe Kitts tore the ACL in her right knee and will miss the entire 2025-26 season, the team announced via email on Oct. 13.
Kitts started the past two seasons for South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and is the reigning SEC Tournament MVP. She averaged 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior last year. She will have surgery this week.
She graduated high school early and joined the team midway through the 2022-23 season. This season would have been her final year of eligibility and she was on pace to be a high draft pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
Kitts could seek a medical redshirt and return for one more year or head to the WNBA when she is recovered from her injury.
The loss for Staley comes not long after another star forward announced she won’t play this season. Ashlyn Watkins tore her ACL in January and was expected to return midseason, but is instead taking an entire year off from school and basketball.
How Dawn Staley reacted to Chloe Kitts’ season-ending injury
Staley was quoted in the release about Kitts’ injury.
“We hate this first for Chloe, who has worked incredibly hard to become the best version of herself on the court this season,” Staley said in the release. “Her teammates are capable of stepping up, and I know that her competitive fire and tenacity will be felt from the sidelines as she pours what she can into them to ensure our team’s success.”
Chloe Kitts injury update
Kitts suffered an ACL tear in her right knee and will miss her senior season. She will have surgery this week.
When did Chloe Kitts injury happen?
It remains unclear when Kitts was injured but on Sept. 22, she was healthy and actively participating in practice when the last media availability is.
Will Chloe Kitts enter the 2026 WNBA Draft?
To be eligible for the WNBA draft, a NCAA player has to either graduate from a four-year college within three months of the draft, be four years removed from high school graduation or turn at least 22 years old during the year in which the draft takes place.
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Kitts will turn 22 on Aug. 5.
South Carolina women’s basketball starting lineup without Chloe Kitts
With Kitts out, it’s expected that the starting lineup is Raven Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson, Tessa Johnson, Joyce Edwards and Madina Okot.
Edwards started once in 2024-25 when Kitts missed a game. Okot is a 6-foot-6 transfer center from Mississippi State.
South Carolina women’s basketball roster 2025-26
With Kitts out, Staley is down to just 10 healthy players. She specifically has only two forwards left behind Edwards in Maryam Dauda and Adhel Tac.
Tac plays more of a center, as she’s 6-5, but missed a lot of last season while recovering from a knee injury of her own. She averaged 3.8 minutes and 1.6 points per game in 2024-25.
Dauda transferred in from Arkansas in May 2024, and in her first season with the Gamecocks, averaged 6.4 minutes and two points.
When is South Carolina’s first game?
The Gamecocks have two exhibition games on Oct. 24 and Oct. 30 then open the season at home on Nov. 3 against Grand Canyon University.
Who is Chloe Kitts boyfriend?
Kitts is dating Collin Murray-Boyles who went to South Carolina and was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in June at the 2025 NBA Draft.
