Hometown star Ashlyn Watkins plays her ‘best basketball’ in USC’s Final Four win
South Carolina’s Ashlyn Watkins knew she had it in her.
On a loaded roster, she also knew she had to be patient.
So Watkins sat. She played 10 minutes per game as a freshman. Five minutes combined in USC’s last four NCAA Tournament games last year and zero in its season-ending loss to Iowa. Heck, she’s even sat at tipoff most of this season, with just nine starts in 37 games at the power forward position compared with 30 for teammate Chloe Kitts.
But, as Watkins said Friday: “Of course I’m going to try to do anything that I can do to help my team win. And that’s what I did today.”
Did she ever.
Watkins, a sophomore forward from Columbia, starred for her hometown team in the Final Four at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, putting up eight points and a whopping 20 rebounds as the No. 1 Gamecocks dominated the second half to beat No. 3 NC State, 78-59.
According to ESPN Stats and Information, her 20 rebounds — Kitts once again started for USC on Friday — were the most by any player off the bench in an NCAA Tournament game over the past 25 seasons.
Watkins (a former volleyball player who has earned the nickname “Swatkins” for her powerful shot blocks) added two blocks as South Carolina reached its third national championship game in the past nine seasons. The Gamecocks (37-0) will play No. 1 Iowa on Sunday afternoon.
“We don’t win the game without her contributions,” Staley said.
“20 rebounds? Who’s doing that as a sophomore?” South Carolina guard Raven Johnson added in the postgame locker room, per WLTX. “They’ve gotta give Ashlyn her flowers. She’s like the X-factor of this team. … She’s also a leader. She uses her voice on both sides of the ball.”
South Carolina only led N.C. State by one point, 32-31, at halftime. But Watkins, a former Cardinal Newman School star, said she wasn’t worried about the Gamecocks’ fortunes.
“I feel like we wanted it,” Watkins said. “By our locker room talk, we wanted it. I could tell by our faces and voices. We wanted it more.”
In the best game of her NCAA Tournament career, Watkins had a plus-minus of +20. And 12 of her 20 rebounds came in the second half alone while playing a team-high 29 of a possible 40 minutes. Although Watkins and Staley might wince at her final shooting percentage of 36% (4 for 11), it seemed at times like the 6-foot-3 forward was everywhere.
Cleaning up a miss.
Making a hustle play.
Emphatically swatting a shot to end the third quarter.
And pulling down 20 rebounds, the most Watkins has had in a game since February 2021, late in her senior year of high school.
“That wasn’t really a goal of mine,” she said, “but I just went out there and played my best basketball.”
It adds to an excellent sophomore year for Watkins, who came to USC with a reputation as a dunker (and has done that twice in her brief time with the Gamecocks) but is showing off her full game in Year Two.
Through Friday’s game, Watkins leads USC with 90 blocks this season (11 more than 6-foot-7 starting center Kamilla Cardoso) and is averaging 9.4 points per game (fourth on the team) and 7.4 rebounds per game (second on the team).
Again, that’s with coming off the bench in 28 of 37 games, including Friday. Staley said postgame that Watkins was “probably a little disappointed” when she wasn’t included among South Carolina’s starting five at the beginning of the season, “but I do think it was the best thing for her development.”
Kitts got that starting nod over Watkins and Sania Feagin, and has started 83% of the games she’s played. But as Watkins has excelled down the stretch in conference and postseason play — though voting totals weren’t released, she was a prime candidate for the SEC Sixth Woman of the Year award that went to Florida’s Leilani Correa — she’s started nine games since Feb. 1.
“Obviously, Kamilla was going to be a focal point for us,” Staley said. “So who plays better with Kamilla in November? And now who plays best with Kamilla in April? Right now it’s Ash because there’s nothing that Chloe is not doing, and it’s everything that Ash is doing.”
South Carolina’s coach went on to praise Watkins for her dedication to the game, noting how the sophomore “went to work” after learning she wouldn’t be in the starting lineup early in the season. That included individual workouts with Staley once a week.
“And when we decided that’s what we were going to do, I didn’t text her” to remind Watkins of those workouts, Staley said. “I made her text me to make sure this is something that she wanted to do. I did forget a couple times, and she reminded me. … It’s a process of being great. It’s a process of trusting. I do think she trusted me and I trust her.”
But neither coach nor player wanted to dwell on Watkins’ career performance for too long. There’s one more major task looming for the Gamecocks on Sunday.
“I want to win this national championship,” Watkins said.
This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Hometown star Ashlyn Watkins plays her ‘best basketball’ in USC’s Final Four win."
