South Carolina women's basketball: An energetic Ashlyn Watkins leads her team to the Final Four
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Sophomore Ashlyn Watkins propelled South Carolina to a 70-58 win over Oregon State in the Elite Eight.
Watkins handled much of the rebounding duties for the Gamecocks, grabbing 14 total. On the defensive end, she hauled in eight, while offensively, she had six.
“With me, I love playing defense,” Watkins said. “I love jumping, and I just like being active on the defensive end. I think that’s what gets us started on the offensive end, good defense.”
Besides her rebounds, Watkins scored eight points and hustled to one steal for South Carolina. She was all over the place, rebounding the ball and then sprinting across the floor to keep it inbounds seconds later.
“Ashlyn sits up here very mild-mannered and soft-spoken, but she’s not,” Gamecock head coach Dawn Staley said. “When it’s time for us to lock up and defend, and when they went on their run in the second quarter, when they were getting those threes off and making them, she was saying things that I didn’t have to say and utilize time in a time-out.”
Watkins also lived up to her nickname “Ashlyn Swatkins” with four blocks to stifle the Oregon State offense.
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“She can guard on the perimeter. She can guard in the post,” Staley said. “So there are more opportunities for her to block shots because of her athletic ability and her ability to play positions 1 through 5.”
Watkins accomplished all of this in 28 minutes off the bench.
Staley said she wasn’t sure if Watkins had the goal of being the best shot blocker South Carolina has seen.
“I don’t know if she came into South Carolina saying I want to be one of the best or the best, but when you put it out there in front of her and she understands what that means, she’ll start goal setting,” Staley said.
Watkins came back in a big way against Oregon State after a slower Sweet Sixteen performance. Watkins recorded four points, three rebounds, one block and two steals against Indiana.
“I told her that I was going to have more energy. I was going to be there for my team, and I feel like I lived up to that today,” Watkins said. “I was just everywhere. I wanted to be everywhere. I wanted to get every rebound, and I almost did.”
