Ava Watson switch to point guard yields results for Ohio State

Last season, guard Ava Watson joined Ohio State women’s basketball alongside former AAU teammate and fellow Buckeye recruit Jaloni Cambridge. The latter entered the program as the top point guard in the 2025 class and Watson the No. 52 recruit.

Watson entered games as a backup shooting guard for upperclassmen guard Chance Gray. For most of Watson’s freshman season, the Georgia native logged minutes off the bench, but failed to really hit her stride.

“Last year I was just a shooter in the corner,” Watson told reporters. “Loni [Jaloni Cambridge] would look for me.”

In 25 appearances, Watson averaged 5.3 points per game and hit 1.2 three-point shots per game, camped out in the corner — hoping to make an impact Most of those points came from the non-conference schedule. As Ohio State moved into the gauntlet that is Big Ten play, Watson received a few minutes here and there against ranked teams like the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans.

The guard’s best Big Ten game came against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Watson had 16 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. It looked like the wait was almost over for Watson to earn minutes in more important matchups. In the second half of that win over Minnesota, Watson got hurt and did not return until the NCAA Tournament for 14 minutes total across Ohio State’s two March Madness games.

This season, Watson was sick the first week of the season and started slow. Now, over the last week, the guard’s new role in the Buckeyes rotation is paying dividends.

Head coach Kevin McGuff moved Watson from shooting guard to point guard. Instead of hanging out beyond the arc, and waiting for an opportunity, Watson is creating the opportunities. The same opportunities that career Buckeye Madison Greene created last season as McGuff’s point guard off the bench.

“She [Watson] did a great job in the Bahamas and was really, really instrumental in the win against West Virginia,” McGuff told reporters. “When Jaloni [Cambridge] fouled out, she did a great job with the ball in her hands, getting making sure it got to the right people at the right time, and running the offense without turning the ball over.”

Watson played the final 4:34 of the fourth quarter against the then No. 21 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers. In those minutes, Watson forced a turnover that turned into easy fastbreak points for freshman guard Bryn Martin and found sophomore center Elsa Lemmilä open in the paint for the basket that gave Ohio State the late lead.

Offensively, Watson got out of the corner and went to the basket. The sophomore point guard scored four points, all of them from the free throw line, using West Virginia’s own strategy against them in the closing minutes.

On Sunday, in the 130-32 rout of the Niagara Purple Eagles, Watson nearly had a triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists and 7 steals. Granted the opponent was not the same level as the Big 12 opponent the Buckeyes played in the Bahamas, Watson has a growing list of important performances for Ohio State in the new point guard role.

“She’s [Watson] coming along,” said McGuff. “We know how talented she is, and I think she just gets more comfortable this season. She’s going to continue to flourish for us.”

So far in the early weeks of the 2025-26 season, Watson is playing like her predecessor Greene, but with a stronger penchant for scoring points. Defensively, Watson played in a full-court press like McGuff’s during high school and is as effective as Jaloni Cambridge in orchestrating it.

Compare the numbers for the two point guards and Watson and Cambridge and it’s nearly a wash. Watson grabs 2.1 steals per game, compared to 2.0 for Cambridge. Now, that is a bit inflated when the Niagara blowout is included. Without those seven steals, Watson averages 1.3 per game, but that is with nearly 10 less minutes per appearance to Cambridge.

Look at the defensive rating for both guards, a statistic that measures how much an opposing team scores on a player over a 100-possession average, and Watson edges out Cambridge 75.9 to 76.5.

Watson’s increasingly strong performances are turning into more minutes. Watson’s 18.7 points per game is the highest for players not in the starting lineup. McGuff uses Watson more than starting senior transfer guard T’Yana Todd, who is still adjusting to the new system at Ohio State.

Ohio State plays its first Big Ten game this weekend, before a brief lull back in the non-conference schedule. If recent form is any indicator, expect Watson to get into the game and make an impact but what about in the future?

The Buckeyes have a clear point guard in Cambridge. Both Cambridge and Watson are sophomores, so there is no waiting for the now backup point guard to get into the starting lineup. If the play of Watson continues its upward trajectory, McGuff has a tough decision on how to split minutes between her, fellow rising guard Martin, freshman Dasha Biriuk and senior Chance Gray.