Turn on a Southeast women’s basketball game, and it is hard to miss the 5’10 senior guard from Bradenton, Fla, Deanay Watson.

Watson is making her presence known this season, leading the Redhawks in points and rebounds/rebounds per game (RPG). She currently has 233 points, averaging 11.1 points per game (PPG) on the year, and has grabbed a total of 121 boards (rebounds) for an average of 5.8.

Head Coach Rekha Patterson said she is most impressed with the way Watson has been able to shoot the ball this season.

“Her ability to make shots has been huge,” Patterson said. “That is something that has really stood out to me, her teammates and even other coaches.”

Watson is also leading the Redhawks in field goal and 3-point percentage, shooting 52.7% from the field and 50.0% from behind the arc.

Although Watson has started in 20 of 21 games this season, averaging 29.4 minutes per game (MPG), last season was much different. Last season, she started in 4 of 21 games, averaging 12.2 MPG. She also averaged 2.7 PPG on 38.6% shooting, to go along with 3.4 RPG.

After the Redhawks loss in the first-round of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) tournament against Murray State last season, Watson said she was determined to become a better player.

“I had in my mind that I wanted to get better,” Watson said. “If I was going to be at SEMO, then I wanted to play.”

One of Watson’s teammates, senior guard Taelour Pruitt, vouched for Watson’s growth from last season.

“She really worked a lot after last season, staying in the gym during the spring. Even over the summer, I saw a lot of videos of her working,” Pruitt said. “She has improved a lot, developing her ball-handling and quickness.”

Watson came to Southeast during the 2020-21 season after a three-year stint at Three Rivers Community College, where she red-shirted her freshman year. This gave her an extra year of eligibility to play.

Patterson said there were many things that led her to recruiting Watson to the team.

“She was very athletic, a good finisher, and she also had good hands,” Patterson said. “The biggest thing though is that I felt like her best basketball was in front of her because she hadn’t been playing for long.”

Watson only started playing basketball around 7 years ago, during her junior year in high school, in which she was dubbed as the “Double-dribble queen.”

Watson said basketball is something she tried out as something to do before track season.

“I picked up a basketball, and I was like, ‘Aw this is fun,” Watson said. “I continued it, and it got me to where I’m at now.”

Reflecting on her time here at SEMO, Watson said it has been good/fun on and off the court. She said she has been enjoying meeting new people outside of basketball and learning more about her teammates as players and humans each day.

Off the court, Patterson said Watson is a joy to be around.

“I told her, ‘You are from the Sunshine State (Fla), and you are a sunshine,’” Patterson said. “Her aura is yellow, and it is bright, exciting, and full of life. Sometimes you never know what you are going to get, but it’s going to be sunshine.”

Deanay and her sunshine energy return to action this Thursday, Feb. 3, as the Redhawks travel to Martin, Tenn. to take on the UT Martin Skyhawks at 5:30 p.m.