Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and Tyasha Harris go back-to-back in first round of WNBA Draft

COLUMBIA, S.C. — For the first time since 2017, South Carolina has two first-round draft picks.

In Friday night’s WNBA Draft, forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan was selected sixth overall by the Minnesota Lynx, and point guard Tyasha Harris was selected right after by the Dallas Wings with the seventh overall pick.

This marks the first time the Gamecocks have had two players taken in the first round since 2017, when South Carolina had three players taken within the first ten picks. The Gamecocks have seven players taken in the first round of the WNBA Draft since 2016.

Harris and Herbert Harrigan have been teammates and roommates since their freshman year in 2016-17– the year the Gamecocks claimed their first national championship. Four years later, they realize their dream of playing in the WNBA together, and right next to each other yet again.

Herbert Harrigan was part of three SEC tournament championships and two SEC regular season titles in her time as a Gamecock. Her senior season, she led the team with 13.1 points per game and posted a career-high 50.6 percent field goal percentage. The season culminated in Herbert Harrigan earning her first All-SEC team honors and earning the SEC Tournament MVP award after posting 14.7 points per game and 5.0 rebounds per game across the tournament.

Harris leaves South Carolina as the all-time leader in assists (702) and assist-to-turnover ration (2.55). She ended her senior season as a finalist in all the major player-of-the-year awards, and earned All-American honors as well.

In all, South Carolina women’s basketball now has 12 WNBA draftees, including nine taken in the first round. The first Gamecock of the Staley Era to be drafted was Aleighsa Welch, chosen in the second round by the Chicago Sky with 22nd overall pick in 2015. A year later, Tiffany Mitchell became Staley’s first Gamecock to go in the first round, matching the program’s highest selection at the time with the ninth pick overall (Indiana Fever). After a trio of Gamecocks were among the first 10 selections on the 2017 draft, A’ja Wilson became the program’s first overall No. 1 pick in 2018, going to the Las Vegas Aces.

Of Staley’s first six draftees, four went on to be selected to the WNBA All-Rookie Team, including WNBA Rookie of the Year selections Gray (2017) and Wilson (2018). Wilson was named a WNBA All-Star in each of her first two seasons as well.