Former South Carolina women’s basketball guard Bree Hall has made a request.
Hall, who was recently signed by the Golden State Valkyries scored her first WNBA point in the 87-63 win over the Connecticut Sun on June 22. The Valkyries also just signed Kaitlyn Chen from UConn, who beat Hall and Gamecocks in the national championship game to conclude the 2024-25 season.
Both WNBA rookies scored their first points in the win, and afterwards, Hall wrote on X, “Can kaitlyn and breezy fans unite? We both got our first wnba points tonight.”
The 6-foot guard was selected No. 20 by the Indiana Fever in this year’s draft, so she’s no stranger to playing with former rivals. Before getting waived by the Fever on May 5, she was Caitlin Clark’s teammate. Clark and Iowa lost to Hall and South Carolina in the 2024 national championship, but the year before, Clark and Iowa beat South Carolina in the 2023 Final Four.
Chen spent one season with the Huskies after playing three seasons at Princeton. On Feb. 16 against the Gamecocks in Columbia, she scored 10 points in 18 minutes of action, and in the title game, she had two points to go with four assists and one rebound.
She was drafted by the Valkyries with the No. 30 overall pick but was waived after playing two preseason games.
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley is the only coach to beat UConn’s Geno Auriemma in a national title game. Staley was previously 3-0 in championship games, with her second one coming after defeating UConn in 2022 but that changed in April.
When Staley’s statue was unveiled on April 30, she made a comment that was seemingly directed at Auriemma.
After winning the title and returning to Storrs, Connecticut, Auriemma said “Most other places, if you win one national championship, they build a statue for you outside the building,” which many believe was directed at South Carolina great A’ja Wilson, who has a statue outside Colonial Life Arena.
At her ceremony, Staley seemingly responded by saying “Contrary to the belief of one of my coaching colleagues, her statue wasn’t in response to winning a national championship. It was in response to being a winner at life.”
Staley was watching multiple WNBA games on June 22, as she wrote on X about a few different former players, including Hall. Staley wrote “Get buckets and stops @breezyhalll! Lay me!!!”
Hall’s first points came with 1:15 to go in the fourth quarter, when she caught the ball behind the 3-point line and drove into the lane for an open layup.
Hall averaged 5.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game during her senior season, and left South Carolina with two national titles, three SEC tournament championships and four Final Four appearances.
Former South Carolina teammate Laeticia Amihere is also on the roster for the Valkyries.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
