Maryam Dauda looked relaxed vs. Arkansas. Dawn Staley hopes it’s a sign of more to come
Playing against one’s former team used to be reserved almost exclusively for professional sports. Now with the transfer portal, it’s a common sight for the same thing to happen at the collegiate level.
On Thursday, Maryam Dauda took the floor Thursday for South Carolina when the Gamecocks faced off against Arkansas, her former team.
No. 6 USC got the better of Arkansas, improving to 24-3 on the year with a 12-1 mark in SEC play after a 95-55 win. And Dauda had one of her best games as a Gamecock in the victory.
She played 14 minutes and finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
“I was happy for Maryam,” coach Dawn Staley said. “Obviously it’s hard playing your former team, but I thought she looked more relaxed than any time during the season. She had reason to kind of be nervous about playing against her former team, but I just thought she gave us some really good minutes.”
Dauda played the first two years of her career at Arkansas before arriving in Columbia this season. During her sophomore season a year ago at Arkansas, Dauda started in all 33 games she played. She averaged 28.7 minutes, 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with the Razorbacks in the 2023-24 season.
Her impact at South Carolina, however, has been limited. Some of that can be attributed to the sheer amount of depth the Gamecocks have in the post.
Dauda is averaging 6.5 minutes of playing time per game this season. She’s averaged two points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
Her 14 minutes against Arkansas marked just the fourth time this season she’s played more than 10 minutes in a game. It was the first time she’s done so since playing 11 minutes in South Carolina’s 101-60 rout of Oklahoma a month ago.
“We put her in early to see what she would look like, and she just looked calm,” Staley said. “I hope this performance will allow her to help us, because there’s something there. There’s some skills there. She rebounds the basketball.”
Dauda’s nine points were nearly a season-high (one point off, to be exact). She shot the ball efficiently, tying a season-high 3-for-5 mark from the field that included a 3-pointer. Her eight rebounds on Thursday also tied a season high.
After losing Ashlyn Watkins to a torn ACL earlier in SEC play, Staley said she’d hope players like Dauda, Adhel Tac and Sakima Walker could step up with more minutes to go around.
Although South Carolina has stuck with its plan of leaning heavily on Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin in the post, it sounds like Staley hopes Thursday’s performance will spark Dauda going forward.
“It’s just sometimes she probably wants to play perfectly and wants to do all the right things,” Staley said. “Sometimes that gets in the way. But I’m hoping this is it, that she could end up helping us somewhere down the line.”
