Dawn Staley praises duo of Ashlyn Watkins, Chloe Kitts in starting lineup

In South Carolina’s 83-45 win over Missouri on Thursday, Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts both started together for the first time. After the game, Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley weighed in on how her sophomore duo performed.

“Chloe did a great job just helping and filling in a gap, dropping down. And then, Ash covers a lot of ground,” Staley said during the postgame press conference. “Both of them are incredibly smart and they don’t mind playing defense. They don’t mind.

“When you have two young players that are like that, they can make magic together. They score the ball, as well. So, it’s always great when they can balance what they’re doing defensively with some offensive punch.”

In the win, Watkins stuffed the stat sheet, tallying nine points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. Not to be outdone, Kitts added 12 points, eight rebounds and five blocks to the Gamecocks’ winning effort.

Both players’ statistics are up significantly from their freshman season. With the young pair’s help, South Carolina is 22-0, 10-0 in conference play and the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

Dawn Staley opens up on Kamilla Cardoso’s absence

Watkins and Kitt started together against Missouri because starting center Kamilla Cardoso was busy competing in Olympic qualifiers for Brazil’s national team. Kardoso’s absence was a significant loss for South Carolina.

The 6-foot-7 senior averages 13.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while shooting 59.5% from the field. Ahead of South Carolina’s matchup against Mizzou, Dawn Staley revealed how Cardoso’s absence would affect the team.

“Everybody just has to do what they do best, like do what you’ve been doing,” Staley said. “We don’t have anybody that’s 6-7. You know, that’s almost averaging a double-double. We don’t, we don’t have anybody. We have different [players] though and being different and being versatile, we have to lean in on that and not try to reproduce what we’re missing.

“We can make up for scoring. We really can make up for scoring. We can’t make up for the defensive presence that Kamilla brings just from her stature. We can however play, you know the the other side of it, the rotations and we could switch probably a little bit more than we normally do.”

Obviously, Staley’s plan worked to perfection. This weekend, South Carolina will need another genius plan from its legendary head coach. On Sunday, the Gamecocks will square off against No. 11 UConn at 2 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.