Out LSU guard MiLaysia Fulwiley hopes for a dream season with her athlete girlfriend cheering her on
LSU’s out All-American guard MiLaysia Fulwiley wants a national title and a lasting legacy in her senior year at Baton Rouge. She now has her girlfriend by her side.
Mark
MiLaysia Fulwiley has been one of the faces of women’s college basketball for the last three years, being dynamic on the court and a bold decision maker off of it.
Already with a championship ring and a second NCAA title game appearance at perennial power South Carolina, she transferred to LSU after the 2024-25 season.
Her senior-year focus is now on one more national title run. “I want to win, and I just gotta help my team do that any way possible,” she said in an interview with ESPN’s SportsCenter in June. “Me being a senior, it takes on a lot more leadership, and I think I’m ready for that.”
It is a role that Fulwiley — one of the out LGBTQ athletes featured in Outsports’ Campus Courage section — has sought throughout her college career since bursting onto the scene as a hometown girl who made great.
She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and had been on coach Dawn Staley’s radar since making varsity as a seventh-grader in high school. Her high school career resulted in five All-State selections and four state championships as a shot-making, play-making dynamo at guard.
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‘I liked her outfit’
Fulwiley’s creative spark was integrated into Staley’s disciplined style at South Carolina. She only made three starts in 38 games in her freshman season, but she was a vital piece of the puzzle coming off the bench. She had a dominating SEC tournament, where she was tournament MVP and averaged 11.7 points per game as the Gamecocks won the NCAA title while going undefeated.
A different arc in Fulwiley’s life came before she ever took a dribble in that championship season. Two weeks into freshman year as she was heading to class, she ran into someone else who was also just heading to class.
“I liked her outfit,” Fulwiley told The State newspaper in October 2024, “because she had this ‘schoolgirl’ look. She had on a skirt, and she looked like she was going to class. And I had on my sweats.”
The student she saw and later met at an athlete’s mixer on campus was JaMeesia Ford, then a sprinter on South Carolina’s track team who would make quite a name of her own. Ford would win two NCAA indoor titles and set an under-20 world record at 200 meters in 2024.
They became friends and then girlfriends: two successful out gay athletes who shared Freshman Female Athlete of the Year honors for South Carolina Athletics in 2024.
“I’ve never really seen a couple that thrives like us,” Fulwiley said. “That’s what really made us want to go public.”
‘A change of scenery’
Her sophomore season at South Carolina saw Fulwiley splitting time at guard. Fulwiley didn’t make a start, but was the SEC’s Sixth Man Award winner. The team ended up getting to the national title game again, but lost to Connecticut.
After the season, amid speculation of friction between Staley and Fulwiley, the hometown girl decided to transfer. LSU provided the new landing spot.
At SEC media days in October 2025, the Tigers’ newest star opened up about why she left her hometown and family to join a conference rival.
“I think it was time for a change of scenery,” Fulwiley said. “In college, we are blessed enough to have the opportunity to change if we want to. I just did what I wanted to do, which is change. I made sure I went to a school that has a great program, that has a great coach [Kim Mulkey] and also wins.”
Photo Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images
Fulwiley walked into another star-studded collections of guards, including now-Seattle Storm guard Flau’jae Johnson and now-fellow senior backcourt mate Mikaylah Williams. Similar to her sophomore year, Fulwiley didn’t start, but seemed to grow in Mulkey’s offense as a point guard.
She led the Tigers in scoring that season as LSU reached the Sweet 16. They bowed out on a buzzer- beater to Duke despite Fulwiley coming off the bench to spark a team that seem to be headed for a sure loss throughout the game.
“She’s just hard to guard,” Mulkey of Fulwiley said after the game. “She gave us a spark when we just started real lethargic for whatever reason.”
Back together again
Heading into her senior season, Fulwiley got another look at a piece of her future. She was a part of USA Basketball’s 3-on-3 side for the World Cup in Poland in June. She averaged 4.6 points per game as her style of play helped Team USA make an undefeated run to win the competition.
She’ll also walk into LSU with an added bonus. Ford, now a three-time NCAA champ and nine-time SEC titleist, will join LSU’s track and field for her senior season and put what was described as a “power couple” as freshmen back at South Carolina on the same campus again. “Thereeee she gooo,” Fulwiley wrote on Instagram when she shared the news.
LSU has not won an NCAA championship since the Angel Reese-led squad that defeated Caitlin Clark and Iowa in 2023. Fulwiley and South Carolina won it next year, and the player and the program see the upcoming campaign as a chance to end LSU’s title drought.
“When I leave LSU, I want people to know that I am a winner,” she said in an interview with BET earlier this week. “And I make sure I do whatever I need to do to help my team win and I take a lot of pride in wearing those three letters and it means a lot to me.”
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