South Carolina women’s basketball star out for 2025-26 season with ACL injury

Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks will be lacking the same sort of depth they’ve enjoyed in the frontcourt in recent years when the 2025-26 season begins.

Not only will Ashlyn Watkins not play this season for South Carolina, but senior forward Chloe Kitts announced Monday morning that she would miss the entire upcoming season after tearing her ACL. The news comes about a week after Kitts was spotted at a South Carolina volleyball game on crutches and with a brace on her right knee.

“I recently suffered an ACL tear and, unfortunately, will be out for this season,” Kitts wrote in a social media post. “While this isn’t how I hoped my senior season would go, I’m trusting God’s timing and purpose. I’ll continue to lead, support and push my team from the sidelines.”

In a statement published by South Carolina athletics, Staley added: “We hate this first for Chloe, who has worked incredibly hard to become the best version of herself on the court this season. Her teammates are capable of stepping up, and I know that her competitive fire and tenacity will be felt from the sidelines as she pours what she can into them to ensure our team’s success.”

Kitts is coming off a season where she averaged career-bests in scoring and rebounding with 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-2 senior from Oviedo, Florida also posted a career-high 1.7 assists per game last year, where the Gamecocks appeared in the national title game for the second straight season.

A starter for Staley for the past two seasons, Kitts was instrumental in the Gamecocks’ postseason success. In a seven-game stretch beginning with the SEC Tournament quarterfinals and going through the Elite Eight, Kitts averaged 14.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and a block per game. She was named MVP of the SEC Tournament and the Birmingham 2 Regional.

Kitts was on track to be a first-round pick in the WNBA Draft this spring. This college campaign would’ve been her final season of eligibility and it’s unclear if she’ll seek a medical redshirt to play next season. She’ll have surgery this week.

With Kitts and Watkins sidelined for the season, South Carolina will likely have to lean on sophomore Joyce Edwards at the power forward position. The 6-foot-3 Edwards is coming off a strong freshman season where she was — alongside Kitts — named as an honorable mention All-American by the AP. Edwards also earned a First Team All-SEC nod and was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Final Four.

Edwards also spent the summer with Team USA, playing for the senior national team at the AmeriCup and with the 3x3 squad at the FIBA Nations League.

While Staley’s South Carolina teams have typically been ones that emphasize physical play and pounding the ball inside, the strength for this group of Gamecocks might be in its backcourt which now features the veteran Raven Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer in Ta’Niya Latson, and sharpshooting junior Tessa Johnson.