Gamecocks pull away from MSU, but Watkins leaves with injury

South Carolina women’s basketball overcame an early 11-point deficit to pull away from Mississippi State and win 95-68 in its second conference game, but a potential major injury marred any good vibes from the afternoon.

With 7:42 remaining in the first quarter and South Carolina trailing 24-15, forward Ashlyn Watkins ran into a Mississippi State defender while driving along the baseline. As she attempted a pass, she collided with the defender and went down holding her left knee. Watkins was not able to put any weight on it, needing two members of South Carolina’s training staff to assist her back to the locker room. The team officially ruled her out for the game shortly after, and Dawn Staley did not have any update on her status post-game other than that she stayed in the arena to receive treatment.

The Gamecocks went to work trying to battle back from a deep deficit in a tough environment without one of its key players.

"Obviously we feel for Ashlyn and her injurhy and her not being able to finish the game," Staley said. "But her teammates have her back and they did take it to another level on both ends of the floor.”

But after a first half littered with turnovers, poor defensive rotations, struggles to contain Mississippi State (13-3, 0-2 SEC) guard Jerkaila Jordan and a slow shooting start, the Gamecocks galvanized after Watkins went down.

South Carolina (14-1, 2-0 SEC) outscored Mississippi State 27-10 for the remainder of the first half, including a 16-0 run to end the second quarter keyed by sharpshooting bench ace Tessa Johnson. The junior guard had her career-high for points in an SEC game before halftime, canning four 3-pointers in the opening half and going into the locker room with 16 points on the board.

She hit two on consecutive possessions as part of a personal 8-0 run late in the first half to take it from a tie game to an eight-point advantage at the intermission, and eventually finished the game with a career-high 22 points.

Defensive adjustments turned the tide at the other end. For most of the first half, Jordan was getting to the rim at will. Any Gamecock who tried to pick her up off the dribble ended up either having to grab her as she went by or watching as she sank another layup.

"We’re going to get everybody’s best effort in the beginning," Staley said. "And sometimes the game has to settle down. Sometimes it’s a substitution here or there, but most times it’s just a great crowd, a great teem, they get off to a great start. The game settled in and we utilized our depth and our experience in being in games like this to play better basketball.”

The guard from New Orleans had 12 of her team’s first 14 points and by the middle of the second quarter, already had 18 on the board. But spearheaded by Johnson on the perimeter and a better team defensive effort overall, Jordan did not score again until the closing stages of the third quarter. South Carolina shut off the driving lanes, squeezed the Bulldogs to the wings and cranked up the pressure to force seven turnovers apiece in the second and third quarters.

Chloe Kitts woke up from her offensive funk just in time to pick up the slack with Watkins down, something the Gamecocks are going to sorely need if she is out for an extended period of time. Kitts scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds, her first time getting over the 10-point threshold since the Duke game exactly a month ago.

"Chloe has been trying," Staley said. "Chloe works her butt off. Sopmeimtes she doesn’t reap the benefits fo her hard work through stast, but she got them today."

Te-Hina Paopao knocked down two triples in the key second quarter run and finished the game with a 15-point outburst, as the 16-0 run to end the first half carried over into a 19-3 run to start the second half as South Carolina finally flexed its muscle and put the Bulldogs to bed.

If you just looked at the box score, it was about what you would expect. A blowout win in a lopsided match-up.

But the Watkins injury was more important than anything on that final stat sheet.

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