Gamecock WBB Fans Get Glimpse Of Future With Fulwiley's Outing Vs. Missouri
Last night, the South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team played their first of two games with the focal point of their team: Kamilla Cardoso. When Dawn Staley was asked on Wednesday afternoon how the team would fill the void left by Cardoso, she made one point abundantly clear.
"We can make up for scoring. We really can make up for scoring."
Looking back, I should've interpreted that statement differently because while I put so much focus on who was going to lead the charge in the frontcourt, I didn't put as much thought toward how some from the backcourt, like MiLaysia Fulwiley, could pick up the slack and then some. Fulwiley scored a team-high 19 points on 44.4 percent shooting from the floor against the Missouri Tigers and did a little bit of everything to reach that point total, using her speed to drive to the basket, shooting threes, and reaching into her bag and pulling out a stepback jumper as well.
The true freshman phenom also dished out four assists while not turning over the ball once and stole the ball from Missouri on six different occasions. MiLaysia displayed increased floor awareness, patience, and timely aggression at different points in the game, something people weren't seeing consistently all at once at the beginning of the season, but now is becoming more of a reoccurring theme with the added experience Fulwiley is getting.
"[MiLaysia]'s just really been locked in on both sides of the basketball, so she's getting pretty serious about this game and the prep forward and really understanding what it takes to play at a high level on a consistent basis," Dawn said after the Gamecocks win over Missouri. "She's now not practicing like she's a freshman. She looks like she belongs. She walks like she belongs. She plays like she belongs."
Beginning next year, with the way the roster is presently constructed, South Carolina wouldn't have a proven and dominant two-way frontcourt player for the first time in six years. However, with a talent like Fulwiley waiting in the wings, the Gamecocks still have a game-changing superstar who's simply waiting in the wings for her time to come.
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