A South Carolina freshman threw down a dunk in transition that showcased women's college basketball's evolution

• South Carolina freshman Ashlyn Watkins threw down a transition dunk against Clemson Thursday.
• The contested slam showcases how quickly women's college basketball is evolving.

Women's college basketball is reaching new heights.

More and more players are rising up and throwing it down, and Ashlyn Watkins is the most recent to join the ever growing club of high-flying stars.

In just her third-ever NCAA game, the South Carolina freshman slammed down a thrilling transition dunk to add an emphatic two points to the Gamecocks' already-massive lead.

With less than five minutes remaining in South Carolina's matchup against the Clemson Tigers and her team up by 43 points on the road, Watkins picked off a pass on the Gamecocks' defensive end, dashed down the court with Tigers players on her heels, and floated above her Clemson defender in the paint to send home a casual one-handed flush.

Check out some other angles of the dunk, which was the first in South Carolina program history, courtesy of SportsCenter:

"That surprised me, because she wasn't really dribbling the ball up the floor smoothly," Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley said after the game. "I thought she was just gonna lay it up over the rim, and she turned it over. That's pretty impressive — that's super impressive.

"I've seen her do it a million times, but never on this level," the former Team USA coach added.

As Staley implied, this was far from the first time the 6-foot-3 Columbia, South Carolina, native has put the basketball world on notice regarding her dunking abilities. During the 2022 McDonald's All-American Games dunk contest back in March, Watkins became just the third woman in the history of the contest to take home the top prize.

"It's just something that I usually do," Watkins said after South Carolina's 85-31 victory Thursday night. "And I had an opportunity to do it in a college game — it's just amazing to me."

With the vast majority of her freshman season — and as many as three more — remaining as a Gamecock, Watkins likely has plenty more dunks coming in her college basketball career. But she's probably not the only player who'll be making headlines for throwing them down.

Unlike the days when WNBA legends Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles, and Brittney Griner shocked the world as the lone dunkers of their respective NCAA tenures, today's women's college basketball landscape features several players who can hang above the rim.

At 6-foot-1, Stanford senior Fran Belibi has thrown down several in-game slams throughout her Cardinal career. And though she has yet to record one at the college level, UConn Huskies freshman Ayanna Patterson has been dunking since she was 15 years old. Now, she can do it with ease.

In no time, Watkins, Belibi, and Patterson's signature trick will likely be prevalent on top teams across America.