South Carolina women’s basketball sophomore Joyce Edwards has been one of the 2025-2026 season’s biggest breakout stars. That might seem like hyperbole, as she earned first-team All-SEC honors last year. However, the Columbia-area native is trending toward first-team All-American recognition this year.
As Edwards has taken a huge step forward, she has turned into one of college basketball’s top scorers. Now averaging 22 points per game on 62.8% shooting, Edwards ranks 10th nationally in scoring, as of Monday afternoon.
Making her ability to put the ball through the hoop that much more impressive, she has played the second-fewest minutes of any of the other top-10 scorers. She also has the second-best shooting efficiency among all players in the country’s top-22 scorers.
Edwards’ most recent games have been her best. She has scored at least 25 points in her last four times on the court. That is the first time a Gamecock has accomplished that since Shannon Johnson about 30 years ago. That means she is on a hotter scoring stretch than ever reached by all-time greats like A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, Tiffany Mitchell, Zia Cooke, Kamilla Cardoso, and Jocelyn Penn.
NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball!
Edwards also brings a lot of value to the Gamecocks outside of her scoring ability.
Defensively, she is one of 17 players in the country to average at least 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks. She guards virtually every position on the floor and has had success, helping limit 5-6 Clemson guard Mia Moore to a five-point performance and making life difficult for 6-6 Penn State post Gracie Merkle en route to just nine total points.
Despite playing with elite rebounder Madina Okot, Edwards is averaging 6.2 boards, too. She has tallied three double-doubles, and Okot played in all three of those contests.
Though the Gamecocks have several big-time guards who can facilitate the basketball, Edwards has done a good job as a secondary and tertiary creator this season. She has had three games with at least five assists this season and is averaging 2.8 per game, despite playing alongside Raven Johnson and Ta’Niya Latson, ranked fifth and 12th in the SEC, respectively, in assists per game.