CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Dozens of children, who have been impacted by highway tragedies, joined South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers and “shopped with a cop” Thursday.

Seven Walmart locations across South Carolina partnered with the law enforcement agency to gift more than 130 kids Christmas presents. Each child received a $150 gift card, which was provided by private donors through the South Carolina Troopers Association.

“Shop with a Cop” events are aimed at fostering positive relationships between the youth and local law enforcement, as well as uplifting their spirits this holiday season.

During this particular event, these children have lost someone in their life to a highway-related death or their loved one experienced a life-altering injury.

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In a challenging stretch of the South Carolina’s 2023-24 women’s basketball schedule, wedged between matchups against Duke and No. 7 Utah, the Gamecocks played an outlier opponent: Morgan State, an HBCU program from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

To coach Dawn Staley and her team, the Wednesday game served as important a purpose as any other contest on their slate.

When speaking at a postgame news conference after South Carolina’s 104-38 victory at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, Staley discussed why she regularly schedules teams from the MEAC, a smaller Division I conference made up of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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For Staley, the reasons are deeply personal, based on her history and previous coaching experience.

“When I was at Temple, we couldn’t get a top team to play us besides Rutgers and Tennessee,” Staley said. “Those were the only two coaches who really gave us an opportunity. It hurt them more than it hurt us. We were an up-and-coming program. We could challenge you. We could challenge the top teams in the country. It didn’t make sense for them, so a lot of them said ‘No.’

“But I’ll always remember what coach Vivian Stringer and coach Pat Summitt did for us and giving us an opportunity to measure ourselves against some of the best, most legendary coaches. It allowed me to grow as a coach. It allowed our program to grow at Temple University. It’s scary, too. I always try to schedule people who are elevating or trying to elevate their program and move their program in the right direction.”

While any major conference program has a non-conference schedule littered with opponents from smaller leagues, Staley had made a notable commitment to arranging games against HBCUs during her tenure. Since the 2010-11 season — Staley’s third at the school — South Carolina has had at least one HBCU on its non-conference schedule every year except for the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season.

Morgan State, the Gamecocks’ opponent on Wednesday, has finished with a winning record in each of the past four seasons under coach Ed Davis, going 41-13 in MEAC play during that stretch. Staley commended the team for what she saw from it while scouting in the days leading up to the matchup, even noting that South Carolina is “going to steal a couple of their plays because they’re really good.”

It’s one reason, among others, why Staley doesn’t believe the lopsided final score is an accurate reflection of the quality of the team the Gamecocks just beat. And it’s why she’ll continue to schedule games against programs like Morgan State.

“Sometimes when you see the score, it’s a downer, but they come in here for a reason and that’s to get better,” she said. “I hope we allowed them to do that because they allowed us to do that, even though the score does not indicate that. But we do learn.”