South Carolina women's basketball: Why South Carolina needs a big game from Ashlyn Watkins
South Carolina Women’s Basketball: News • Recruiting • Schedule • Roster • Stats • SEC Standings • NCAA Polls • Scholarship Chart
South Carolina All-American Kamilla Cardoso is suspended for the Gamecocks’ First Round game against Presbyterian, and it gives South Carolina a chance to turn a negative into a positive.
Earlier this season, on December 16, South Carolina beat Presbyterian 99-29. Cardoso had a big game – 12 points, nine rebounds, and seven blocks in 23 minutes – but she wasn’t a 70-point difference.
South Carolina should win easily again, and that’s where the silver lining comes in.
Ashlyn Watkins should start in place of Cardoso and has a chance to have a big game. She had 10 points, 12 rebounds, and six blocks in December. She only played 22 minutes in that game and should get more playing time on Friday. She’s not going to change her approach, however.
“It’s going to be like regular,” Watkins said. “I’m going to just have to play.”
Watkins averages 9.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. She finished the regular season on a tear, scoring in double figures in six of the last seven games with three double-doubles.
“Ashlyn is dominant. No one can stop her but herself,” MiLaysia Fulwiley said. “We just build that into her head. She has a big voice on this team.”
Then came a relatively quiet SEC Tournament. Watkins had 10 points and five rebounds against Texas A&M, but then just six points and five rebounds against Tennessee and three points and six rebounds against LSU. She did have five blocks in the championship game, but it seemed like she was in foul trouble the whole weekend.
Watkins was a valuable reserve as a freshman last season, but when rotations got shorter in the postseason she saw her playing time dry up.
Watkins had five points in 16 minutes against Norfolk State and then four points in two minutes against South Florida. But she played just four minutes total in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight and didn’t play at all in the Final Four.
[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]
That’s a very detailed way of saying that Watkins is still a postseason novice. South Carolina is counting on her to have a significant impact this March, and it would be nice if she could get this tournament run started with a big game to boost her confidence.
“She needs to get back to the Ashlyn of old, dominating on both sides of the ball,” Dawn Staley said. “She’s over the course of this season found a strong voice in our locker room and on our bench. When she’s engaged that way, we’re a much better basketball team. When we don’t hear it, we’re not as good.”
