‘They are the standard.’ No. 1 South Carolina deals Kentucky one of its worst losses ever.

South Carolina’s Ashlyn Watkins was responsible for the first of a few historic markers during the Gamecocks’ 98-36 rout of Kentucky on Monday night when, in the first quarter, she recorded the first-ever women’s basketball dunk at Colonial Life Arena after stealing the ball from Amiya Jenkins.

The moment also served as the first sign — in an otherwise solid quarter for the Wildcats, after which they trailed by just four points — of the storm ahead for Kentucky (8-10, 1-3 SEC) and head coach Kyra Elzy against undefeated and No. 1-ranked South Carolina (16-0, 4-0 SEC).

“I hate that it was against us, obviously,” Elzy said. “But it’s great for the game of women’s basketball and how far that we have come. And, you know, a big-time play. But, you know, if we don’t turn the ball over there is no dunk.”

The dunk by the 6-foot-3 Watkins occurred with 2:37 to play in the first quarter and set the tone for the Gamecocks to outscore Kentucky 29-8 in the second quarter and 33-11 in the third.

“I thought we were steady in the first quarter,” Elzy said. “Stuck to our game plan, played extremely hard. But I didn’t think we played to our capability for the duration of the game.”

The dunk was Watkins’ first of the season and the second of her career after dunking as a freshman last season against Clemson. Watkins’ dunk against UK tied her for the second-most dunks in SEC women’s basketball history with Tennessee’s Candace Parker (2004-08), one behind Tennessee’s Michelle Snow (1998-02).

In winning its 50th straight game at home Monday, South Carolina posted its largest victory margin ever — 62 points — in an SEC home game.

The Gamecocks limited the Wildcats to a season-low 36 points, their lowest-scoring performance in Elzy’s four seasons as head coach..

Remarkably, South Carolina has beaten four other opponents this season worse than it did Kentucky on Monday night. The Gamecocks, who are winning by an average of 38.9 points per game in 2023-24, have posted victory margins of 82 (Mississippi Valley State), 70 (Presbyterian), 69 (Clemson) and 66 (Morgan State).

Kentucky’s defeat was its second-worst ever in SEC play and third-worst overall. The Wildcats fell to Tennessee 110-38 on Jan. 21, 2001. Kentucky’s record book lists a 119-40 loss to the Australian National Team on Feb. 1, 1974, as the program’s worst loss ever.

“I told our team, ‘They’re the number one team in the country. In order to be the best you’ve got to play the best,’” Elzy said. “I thought we came in ready to compete. With a young team, you’ve got to learn from this. You’ve got to learn and, you know, they are the standard. Where we’re trying to be and where we’re trying to get to as a program.”

Limiting Petty

Kentucky’s leading scorer, 6-3 senior forward Ajae Petty, entered the South Carolina matchup averaging 16.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley called containing Petty “a point of emphasis.”

“Obviously she has big-game capability,” Staley said. “And, I mean, we just wanted to limit her production, make it hard for her, throw a lot of bodies at her. That can do various things, and I thought they did a really good job at just taking away her space, her ability to be athletic and quick and create mismatches with her quickness.”

The nation’s sole undefeated team held Petty to a season-low two points in 26 minutes. Petty also contributed five rebounds, one assist and two steals in the loss. Elzy made a point of acknowledging Petty’s struggles, and — just as South Carolina intended — said her lack of movement hurt her production.

“Petty didn’t have her best game tonight,” Elzy said. “And she’s carried us for a lot of nights, and tonight just wasn’t her night. But one thing that I talked to her about is, she will go back and watch film, as she always does, you know, sprinting into the ball screen and rolling. Didn’t think she had enough movement. And even if she was not open on the roll, anytime we sprinted into the ball screen and did roll, the guard was open, which gave us a clean look. But I think just her having more movement and activity and not just standing at the high post.”

Petty scored her two points on 1-of-5 shooting. She was sent to the free throw line twice, both times while driving in the paint, but failed to convert any of her four attempts.

“Obviously they’re bigger,” Elzy said. “But when she reverse-pivoted and drove, you know, she got to the free throw line. We just have to have more of that.”

‘Clean that up’

Petty’s shutdown wasn’t the only marker of South Carolina’s defensive success.

South Carolina hammered the Wildcats 45-31 on the boards. Kamilla Cardoso, South Carolina’s 6-5 center, blocked five shots, all in the first half. The Gamecocks held the Wildcats to 14 points in the paint — vs. South Carolina’s 54 — and forced 24 Kentucky turnovers, with 14 of those counted as steals.

Most notably — a “staggering stat,” as Staley called it — South Carolina scored 34 points off UK’s 24 turnovers while Kentucky failed to convert any points off South Carolina’s 14 turnovers.

“Taking care of the ball,” Elzy said. “People are really making us pay for our turnovers, and some of those are just miscues or misreads, but we got to go back and clean that up.”

Just one Wildcat, Saniah Tyler, scored in double figures against South Carolina while six separate Gamecocks scored at least 10 points. Tyler’s stat line of 13 points on 5-of-19 from the field including 3-of-9 from long range marked the eighth game this season (and eighth of her career) where she’s scored in double figures. This is also the third game where she’s led all Wildcats in scoring.

“I was proud of Saniah,” Elzy said. “I’ve really been on her about growing up in big games. I thought she came in and played steady offensively when we needed buckets in the first half, and played solid defensively. So this was a game of growth for her, and we needed that from her.”

Senior guard Maddie Scherr, who entered the matchup averaging 14.9 points per game, finished with nine on 3-of-19 shooting. Elzy said she liked Scherr’s shot selection, but that the team would look at film to see where they could create easier scoring opportunities for her.

“I actually thought she had some good looks tonight,” Elzy said. “We’ve got to continue to do a better job of creating shots for her. She has to take the ones that are open, which she did tonight. They didn’t go down, but I’m confident in her ability to score. I thought she was extremely aggressive.”

The Wildcats will face South Carolina again on Feb. 25 at Rupp Arena, Kentucky’s Senior Day.

Next game

Missouri at Kentucky

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Rupp Arena

TV: SEC Network+ (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630

Records: Kentucky (8-10, 1-3 SEC), Missouri (10-7, 1-3 SEC)

Series: Kentucky leads 11-5

Last meeting: Kentucky won 77-54 on Jan. 29, 2023, at Memorial Coliseum

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