Freshman Ayla McDowell showing signs of reliability off bench for Gamecocks WBB
As fans know by now, Dawn Staley and the No. 3 South Carolina women’s basketball team have 10 healthy players available in the 2025-26 season. Just missing one player can make the rotation get interesting, as evidenced by the five games the Gamecocks have already played short-handed with nine players this season.
But then things can get even crazier if (and when) South Carolina loses two players and is forced to play with just eight players — like it did against N.C. Central on Sunday.
South Carolina has only lost one game this season, a two-point defeat to a top-five Texas team in Las Vegas, so it hasn’t affected the Gamecocks much in the win-loss column.
The injury bug, however, is unpredictable. And as such, Staley wants her bench to develop so South Carolina can play eight or nine of its players, give its starters a rest when needed and not have a major drop-off in production.
Ayla McDowell is one of those players Staley hopes is learning on the bench, and she’s already shown signs of some early development this season.
The freshman wing did a little bit of everything in just the second game of her college career last month against Bowling Green. South Carolina was without guard Maddy McDaniel, which led to more minutes for McDowell (23 to be exact). McDowell scored 11 points and had three rebounds, two steals and an assist.
After the game, Staley described McDowell as “predictable,” a term one would think comes with a negative connotation. For Staley, that isn’t the case.
“There is nothing more that a coach wants from a freshman than to be predictable,” Staley said in November. “She is in the right places. She can shoot the ball. Defensively, she’s not gonna look like a Raven [Johnson], but her impact on the ball, off the ball, she stays in plays and she does what we ask of all of our guards. If you just look at her, she plays it picture perfect.”
A few weeks later, McDowell set a new season-high mark with 26 minutes played in a 106-56 win over Winthrop where the Gamecocks were, again, playing with just nine players. McDowell scored seven points and had four rebounds, one steal and one assist.
“Ayla is coming along,” Staley said after the Winthrop game. “Ayla is doing the things, the intangible things. She knows what we want and she plays to that. And I like that.”
McDowell’s impact on the stat sheet was relatively minimal after that game. She averaged 2.5 points across South Carolina’s next four games versus Queens, Duke, Texas and Louisville.
McDowell played just nine minutes against Louisville last week — a game where all three of South Carolina’s starting guards played 38 minutes — and scored three points while totaling two rebounds and an assist. Staley felt she looked “really great” in those spot minutes.
On Sunday, it looked like McDowell found a groove.
She played a career-high 27 minutes in South Carolina’s 106-42 win over N.C. Central. McDowell’s playing time increased after the Gamecocks were down to just eight available players for the matchup with Tessa Johnson (sick) and Agot Makeer (concussion protocol) both out.
McDowell scored a career-high 16 points and was 5 of 7 from 3-point range in the game.
“It felt good,” McDowell said. “Honestly, I’ve just been working on my 3-ball a lot. I’m just trying to work on being ready when my time comes.”
Staley said McDowell’s performance in the loss to Texas last month — where she played five minutes and missed all three shots she took — has helped spur her in practice recently.
“It was the Texas game, meaning she was a little nervous — like she was a lot nervous,” Staley said. “I do think because of that, because we threw her out there and said, ‘Hey, do what you can do,’ she didn’t like the way she played, she didn’t like the way she felt. But if we don’t put her out there, she doesn’t get in the gym — and she went right to the gym after we got back.”
McDowell made five 3-pointers against N.C. Central. Ta’Niya Latson, who also made five 3-pointers in the game, is the only other Gamecock so far this year to make five or more in a single game.
“She can shoot the ball. That is no question,” Staley said. “She has to put herself in position to shoot the ball, and she doesn’t always do that. Now she does, and we’re finding her, and she’s making shots.”
If McDowell can continue to string together successful games, she could boost her reliability off the bench regardless of how many players are available any given night.
“I feel very prepared,” McDowell said after the Bowling Green game. “Coach always talks about bringing practice habits to the game and I practice how I play. So it’s just about having the confidence and coming into the game and doing the same thing that I do in practice. And I think it’s converted pretty well.”
South Carolina’s upcoming schedule
- Sunday: vs Penn State, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Thursday: at South Florida, TBA (ESPN+)
- Saturday: at Florida Gulf Coast, 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
- Dec. 28: vs Providence, 12 p.m. (SEC Network)
This story was originally published December 10, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
