Just call it, “The Real SC Series, Bonus Edition.” On Monday, South Carolina and Southern Cal will play each other for the second time this season.

The Gamecocks and Trojans began a two-year series this season called “The Real SC,” an NIL-fueled attempt to determine which program gets to lay claim to their shared initials.

It is technically a neutral site series. The first game was played in Los Angeles, but at Crypto.com Arena, not at the Trojans’ Galen Center. Next year’s game will be played at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville.

South Carolina beat Southern Cal 69-52 back in November, and the unplanned extra game ensures that the two-year series can’t end in a tie.

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“You’re never going to be sorry to play the best teams,” Southern Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “Maybe if we hadn’t played Notre Dame and UConn and South Carolina, maybe our record would be a little better coming in, but it doesn’t make you a better program. Our goals remain the same, which is to be a National Championship team. If you’re skipping those people in the nonconference hoping to manipulate, it doesn’t work that way. You have to see the best, you have to elevate your program to be the best, and then you ultimately have to beat the best to get where you want.”

Gottlieb didn’t expect her plan to play out this season, but that’s what happened. Both teams know what worked and what didn’t work against the other.

“We kind of have to be intentional about the mistakes we made last time, and just being more solid understanding the scout and doing what we know we can do to stop what they’re good at,” Laura Williams said.

“I think we’re still very similar in that we’re still running the same stuff, our go-to stuff,” Dawn Staley said. “I was saying to myself that we didn’t have the spacing that we needed from an offensive standpoint. We were actually doing some pretty good stuff in that particular game that we’re working on right now to create the spacing that I don’t think we always play with.”

However, that game in November was the third game of the season for the Trojans and the fourth for the Gamecocks. Over four months have passed since then, so the teams look very different now.

“I think they’ve evolved, just like anyone else has,” Gottlieb said. “They literally gained a player, so they gained some more depth with (Alicia) Tournebize. Also, they’ve continued to evolve. (Madina) Okot has improved and is obviously showing more range. It’s hard to believe that Joyce Edwards is only a sophomore, so she has, I think, expanded her game.”

“I feel like when you have games under your belt, you start building chemistry,” Gamecock point guard Raven Johnson said. “Everybody’s trying to find a rhythm. Everybody’s trying to find — you’ve got new players on your team. Like Jazzy (Davidson), she’s a freshman. They’re trying to see what she can do. You get more games under your belt, you start building more chemistry, you start trusting each other. But I think in March, it don’t even matter. It don’t matter what conference we’re in. It don’t matter we’re in the SEC. It really don’t matter. It’s just we need to go out there and win.”

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That game certainly looked like an early-season game. Offense was hard to come by, with the teams shooting a combined 35% in the first half. Ta’Niya Latson was playing on a sore ankle, and South Carolina had more turnovers than assists. Southern Cal was just 1-14 from three, and the teams combined to got 14-22 from the line.

“Our team a couple months ago wasn’t the same as it is right now, so just building off of that,” Southern Cal’s Kennedy Smith said. “Obviously, we watched film from last time we played them, so just making adjustments and going from there.”