Can South Carolina WBB replicate bench production from last season in 2025-26?
Last year, South Carolina had the best bench unit in South Carolina women’s basketball.
Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks led the country with an average of 40.3 bench points per game, over half of the 79.1 points the entire team averaged per game.
With Chloe Kitts (torn ACL) and Ashlyn Watkins (taking a year off) both out for the season, the Gamecocks will have 10 healthy players on opening night. South Carolina still touts an extremely talented roster, but it does mean everyone will be stretched thinner than in previous years.
So, will South Carolina be able to replicate the bench production from last season?
A closer look
The answer: It’s going to be challenging, but not impossible. It’s also probably not realistic to expect the same amount of scoring from the bench this season.
Three of South Carolina’s top five scorers came off the bench last year. Those players were Joyce Edwards (led the team with 12.7 points per game), MiLaysia Fulwiley (second in scoring with 11.7 ppg) and Tessa Johnson (fifth in scoring with 8.4 ppg).
Edwards and Johnson are likely moving into Staley’s starting lineup this season and Fulwiley — who was named the SEC 6th Woman of the Year last season — transferred to LSU.
The Gamecocks’ starting lineup will probably look like this on opening night:
- G: Raven Johnson
- G: Ta’Niya Latson
- G: Tessa Johnson
- F: Joyce Edwards
- C: Madina Okot
Last season, part of why South Carolina was so good was its embarrassment of riches on the bench. At any moment, Staley could call on any of her eight players — most of whom were former McDonald’s All-Americans — to replace a starter and there would be little to no dropoff in production.
This year though, Staley will have to rely on just five (still talented) bench players — Maddy McDaniel, Maryam Dauda, Adhel Tac, Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer — but she isn’t expecting any major hiccups in bench production.
“We don’t [face challenges]. I think 10 could actually play,” Staley told The State. “… They’ve all gotten better, even our transfers have gotten better since June until now. Our freshmen, we just got them in the fall, and they’ve done a tremendous job at blending in and some of them just keep getting better. So we’ll be challenged with the same thing that we’ve been challenged with, to continue to play a lot of players. They’ve improved.”
Dauda and Tac will likely face the most pressure off the bench. They’ll be responsible for relieving Edwards and Okot in what is a depleted frontcourt without Watkins and Kitts.
Dauda will be the most experienced player coming off the bench for the Gamecocks. She started in 33 of the 68 games she played in during two years at Arkansas before transferring to South Carolina last year. Dauda played just 6.4 minutes per game last season for the Gamecocks and averaged two points per game. It took her a while to get rolling, but her minutes increased during the postseason as she proved to be a steady presence off the bench on both offense and defense.
Tac appeared in 23 games during his first collegiate season last year with the Gamecocks. She averaged just 3.8 minutes of action per game. The sophomore is full of potential, and her 6-foot-5 frame alone will help replace Okot (who is 6-foot-6) in the post during games.
“Maryam is playing extremely well,” Staley said at SEC Tipoff in Birmingham this month. “Much improved. Adhel is playing much improved. Joyce is Joyce. Joyce is going to probably take the brunt of it because she’s just got more playing experience under us.”
In the backcourt, McDaniel is poised to be the first guard off the bench. McDaniel played an average of 11 minutes in the 30 games she appeared in. The sophomore, affectionately nicknamed Maddy Mouse, is quick with the ball and plays well in transition. Despite her smaller frame (she’s listed at 5-foot-9), McDaniel excels when driving to the basket and earned a comparison to former Gamecock star Zia Cooke from her teammates.
Staley also brought in two freshmen guards in Agot Makeer and Ayla McDowell. Both were five-star recruits who were McDonald’s All-Americans last year. Makeer and McDowell’s offensive talents have been lauded by their head coach and teammates so far in preseason. They were likely to see some playing time in their first year of college but with more minutes to go around now, their roles will certainly increase.
“We have 10 solid players,” Edwards said at SEC Tipoff. “We don’t need to have a huge roster, we’re only going to play about eight, nine. Every single one of our players are going to contribute to the team dramatically so we’re going to have the same production this year. They’re great, especially our freshmen (and) our newcomers. They’re all gonna bring something to the table that I feel like we didn’t really have last year. I’m just excited.”
It will be a tall order for South Carolina’s bench to replicate the offensive production it was capable of a year ago. But then again, it’s not exactly what the Gamecocks will need this season.
With most of the scoring power in the starting lineup now, South Carolina’s relatively inexperienced bench (outside of Dauda) will be tasked with keeping the team in games while the starters get some rest. There might be games where the bench needs to score a lot out of necessity, but South Carolina will likely be looking for more scoring out of its starters this year than anything.
USC women’s basketball upcoming schedule
- Friday: exhibition vs Anderson, 7 p.m. (exhibition)
- Oct. 30: exhibition vs North Carolina in Atlanta, 6 p.m.
- Nov. 3: vs Grand Canyon, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 7: vs Bowling Green, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Nov. 11: vs Clemson, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM.
