South Carolina women’s basketball hosts its SEC home opener against Texas A&M on Thursday evening. Here’s how to watch and what to watch for.

1. Missing Ashlyn

South Carolina announced on Tuesday that junior forward Ashlyn Watkins will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Staley let Watkins tell the team about her injury, and then the coaches have tried to push forward.

“We just keep it moving, try not to harp on it too much because it’s felt,” Staley said. “The more you move on, the more they move on – and our players have to move on. It’s a part of it.”

I broke down how South Carolina will try to replace Watkins here.

Staley said, “Only time will tell” the impact of Watkins’ absence, but it is definitely an opportunity for Maryam Dauda, Adhel Tac, and Sakima Walker to step into a new role.

“Sometimes, when you remove someone as big as Ashlyn from your equation, other people have an opportunity,” Staley said. “And what they do with that opportunity, usually, they do something pretty good with it. We’ll work with them, and we’ll be patient with them.”

2. Spurtability

South Carolina’s strengths this season have been its bench and its transition game. In the first two SEC games, South Carolina pulled away with the second unit on the court getting stops and getting out in transition. 

Watkins, with her ability to rim run with or without the ball, was a huge part of that. Her absence isn’t going to stop the Gamecocks from running, especially at home. Even without Watkins, the Gamecocks had 15 fast break points on Sunday. 

That quick-strike ability has Texas A&M coach Jni Taylor worried.

“We have a saying around here that says, ‘before you know it,’” Taylor said. “If you keep doing the right thing, keep putting your head down, keep grinding, you look up and before you know it, you’ll be where you’re supposed to be. Likewise, if you don’t come out ready, if you are pouting, if you are feeling sorry for yourself, before you know it, you won’t be where you’re supposed to be. That’s one of those things at South Carolina. They’re a really good team. They play really well at home. We will be, flashback of last year here, we’ll be down 15 to zero before we can bat an eye if we don’t come out ready to go.”

[Join GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days]

3. (Dress rehearsal)

Nobody is going to say it out loud, but Thursday’s game is an important tune-up for the Sunday showdown against no. 5 Texas. 

Is Tac ready to battle Kyla Oldacre? Can Dauda’s shooting pull Oldacre away from the paint? Is there enough rim protection to keep Rori Harmon from getting easy layups, or do they need to get creative? Who should guard Madison Booker?

It’s a familiar refrain in these parts. Get the game in hand early so you have the fourth quarter to look at some different lineups.

“We let our players play through some stuff, and then you’ve got to look at the scoreboard,” Staley said. “If we’re holding serve on the scoreboard, and we’re up, more lenient to leave them out there to give them some minutes. But, if the scoreboard moves in an unfavorable way, then you got to get combinations out there that’s going to move it the opposite way.”

Texas hosts no. 18 Alabama on Thursday night, so the Longhorns can’t afford to look ahead. But we can.

[USC-Texas WBB: Win tickets, parking]

4. Availability report

Maddy McDaniel and Sakima Walker were both listed as OUT on the Wednesday evening Availability Report.

McDaniel has not played since the holiday break after suffering a concussion. Walker has not played since the Iowa State game and hasn’t been available since the TCU game with an ankle injury. Both have started participating in practice this week but obviously are not yet full-speed.

Vanessa Saidu is listed as OUT for Texas A&M. She has yet to play this season. Amirah Abdur-Rahim is listed as questionable.

Side note: Because Watkins has been declared out for the season, she is not included on the availability report.

Get our new GamecocksW newsletter.

5. Scouting the Aggies

The Aggies are one of the three SEC teams that haven’t reached 10 wins yet. There are a lot of good players on the roster – anyone in the country would take Lauren Ware, Sahara Jones, and Janae Kent – plus a great scorer in Aicha Coulibaly, but the sum of the parts hasn’t been quite where it needs to be.

However, Texas A&M is coming off an upset of then-25th-ranked Ole Miss on Sunday. The win was a 60-58 rock fight in which Ole Miss shot 0-12 in the fourth quarter, but that fits Joni Taylor’s defensive mindset. 

‘I think that we’ve been able to show really good spurts defensively of how we can impact the game,” Taylor said. “To hold Ole Miss or any team, for that matter, without a field goal in the fourth quarter is really impressive, and I think it just shows, again, what we are capable of.”

Coulibaly has been a thorn in the Gamecocks’ side before. She scored 32 points and grabbed six rebounds against the Gamecocks in the SEC tournament quarterfinals last season. Coulibaly had no problem getting to the basket and drawing fouls, going 13-15 from the line. And that was with Watkins and Kamilla Cardoso guarding the rim.

“Coulibaly is the one that we haven’t solved playing against her,” Staley said. “I do think they’re better. They’re playing more cohesive. They’ve got some bigs that do what bigs do. They have guards that are a year older, some transfers that have played in our league, so … formidable. And then, they’re coming off a big win against Ole Miss.”

Texas A&M freshman Taliyah Parker was a high school teammate of Tac’s at South Grand Prairie. Parker has appeared in all 14 games this season and averages 5.3 points and 2.4 rebounds.

The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (14-1, 2-0) vs Texas A&M (8-6, 1-1)
When: 5:00 EST, Thursday, January 9 
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC 
Watch: ESPN2

NORMAN — Porter Moser didn’t have to look at a box score. He knew why his team fell to Texas A&M, 80-78, on Wednesday.

Turnovers.

It was the primary reason why the Sooners let an 18-point second-half lead slip away.

The Sooners committed 18 turnovers in the game, including 10 in the second half. Those turned into 30 points for Texas A&M — 24 in the second half — and that proved to be a big reason why the Aggies were able to rally.

“That was the storyline,” Moser said. “They had 30 points off turnovers.

“And (Texas A&M) did a great job. They turned all the turnovers into points. That’s the storyline, the 18 turnovers. We had 21 assists. When we did get the ball moving and popping, I thought we did some great things. But when we went too deep, they’re elite at just digging and breaking, getting their hands on it.”

Turnovers haven’t really been an issue for the Sooners this season. They came into the contest averaging under 12 per game while posting a positive turnover margin.

But the Aggies came into the game forcing over 14 turnovers per game, and it cost the Sooners. Seven different OU players committed at least one turnover. Jeremiah Fears was the primary culprit with four, while Kobe Elvis, Jalon Moore and Duke Miles all committed three.

The Sooners were able to play mostly clean basketball in the first half. They led 39-30 at halftime, and while they committed eight turnovers, that only turned into six points off turnovers for the Aggies.

However, the Sooners finished with a few too many, and it cost them at the Lloyd Noble Center. They fall to 13-2 on the season and 0-2 in SEC play.

“They had great physicality, great big plays, relentlessness by them,” Moser said. “I thought we did, too. I thought we made a lot of relentless plays.

“Just a disappointing loss to come up short. The storyline is the turnovers. You’re right, that hasn’t been an issue all year. It came out tonight against an elite, physical defensive team.”

— It appeared the story would be about Goodine’s career day. The sixth-year veteran finished the game with 34 points off the bench and made 9-of-12 attempts from downtown. He went into halftime with 21 points and six 3-pointers, contributing more than half of OU’s scoring output.

He surpassed his previous career-high for 3-pointers while also tying Hollis Price and Mookie Blaylock for most triples in a game in OU program history.

It was a huge performance for Goodine, who had scored just 17 points over the last four games on 2-of-12 shooting from deep. And while it looked like Goodine would be the hero in a much-needed win, his performance only added to the sting.

“It’s tough to have a performance like that and lose. That’s the honest answer,” Moser said. “I thought he was unbelievable.”

— The biggest gut punch came with 29 seconds left in the game.

With the Sooners leading by one, Fears grabbed a huge rebound and was fouled, sending him to the free throw lline for a one-and-one. He missed the front end, keeping the lead at one.

15 seconds later, Zhuric Phelps hit the game-winning 3-pointer and his sixth of the night.

Fears finished with 13 points (4-of-8 shooting), four rebounds and four assists.

— While Goodine was hot early, the Aggies were not. They shot just 34% in the first half and 1-of-7 from deep.

That completely flipped in the second half. The Aggies shot 53% from the field and made 8-of-16 from downtown. 14 of their 17 second-half baskets came on either layups or dunks as they constantly feasted on OU’s turnovers.

— The Aggies, which came into the game leading the country in offensive rebounds, finished with 17. They scored 10 second-chance points.

— Up next: The Sooners travel to Georgia for a 5 p.m. tipoff on Saturday.

Not an OUInsider.com premium member? Sign up today to get loads of inside information on Oklahoma football, softball, basketball, and recruiting, all for just a few dollars a month. Click HERE to get started!

Follow us on Twitter @OUInsider and on Instagram @ouinsiderofficial!

Subscribe on YouTube by clicking here for daily video content on all things Oklahoma!