Joyce Edwards (born January 30, 2006) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. She attended Camden High School and was a five-star recruit and one of the top players in the 2024 class.

High school career

Edwards attended Camden High School. During her junior year she averaged 28.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.9 assists and led Camden to the 3A state championship. Following the season she was named South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. During her senior year she averaged 31.3 points, 13.3 rebounds, 4.5 steals, 3.3 blocks and four assists per game and led Camden to their second consecutive 3A state championship. Following the season she was named South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year for the second consecutive year and

Gatorade National Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

. She was also named

Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year The McDonald's All-American Game is an American all-star basketball game played each year for boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the conclusion of the hi ...

. Edwards played in the

2024 McDonald's All-American Girls Game The 2024 McDonald's All-American Girls Game was an all-star basketball game played on April 2, 2024, at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The game's rosters featured the best and most highly recruited high school girls graduating in the class of 2 ...

, where she scored a game-high 19 points and was named co-MVP along with

Sarah Strong Sarah Strong (born February 3, 2006) is an American-French college basketball player for the UConn Huskies of the Big East Conference. She was ranked the number one recruit in the 2024 class by ESPN. Early life and high school career Strong was ...

. She competed at the 2024

Nike Hoop Summit The Nike Hoop Summit is an international basketball all-star game sponsored by Nike, Inc., Nike, held once a year, which features the USA Basketball Men's Junior Select Team against a World Select Team of international players. The players demons ...

, where she led Team USA with 25 points, nine rebounds, and five steals. She scored 17 points in the second half, helping lead team USA to a comeback victory over the world team. She then competed at the 2024

Jordan Brand Classic The Jordan Brand Classic is a high school all star basketball game played annually in April. The game's rosters feature the best and most highly recruited high school boys and girls in the senior class. In 2015, a girl's game was introduced. Th ...

, where she scored a game-high 25 points, seven rebounds, two assists, six steals and two blocks, and was named MVP.

Recruiting

Edwards was considered a five-star recruit and the number two player in the 2024 class, according to

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. On November 15, 2023, she signed her

National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

(NLI) to play

, over offers from

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

and Clemson. She was the highest-rated player from South Carolina since

A'ja Wilson A'ja Riyadh Wilson ( ; born August 8, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Wilson played for the South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball, South Car ...

was No. 1 in 2014.

College career

On November 28, 2024, against

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

, Edwards scored 13 points and 11 rebounds for her first career

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the ter ...

. She was subsequently named the SEC Freshman of the Week for the week ending December 3, 2024. During her freshman year, she led South Carolina in scoring, and averaged 13.0 points per game in conference play. Her .558

field goal percentage Field goal percentage in basketball is the ratio of field goals made to field goals attempted. Its abbreviation is FG%. Although three-point field goal percentage is often calculated separately, three-point field goals are included in the gene ...

ranked fourth in the SEC. She was the Gamecocks' leading scorer in a team-high 13 games, including seven against ranked opponents. Following the season she earned first-team All-SEC and SEC all-freshman team honors. She became the third Gamecock freshman to earn first-team All-SEC honors, following

in 2015 and

Aliyah Boston Aliyah Boston (born December 11, 2001) is an American professional basketball Power forward (basketball), power forward and Center (basketball), center for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was named 20 ...

in 2020.

National team career

Edwards represented the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at the

2023 FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup was a tournament organized by FIBA for women's youth national basketball teams aged 19 years old and below. The tournament was held in Madrid, Spain, from 15 to 23 July 2023. The United State ...

, where she was the youngest member on the roster. During the tournament she averaged 12.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in seven games. She was named to the all-tournament team after helping the United States win a gold medal. On May 19, 2024, Edwards was named to team USA's roster for the 2024 FIBA Under-18 Women's AmeriCup. During the tournament she led team USA in scoring, and ranked fourth overall in the tournament, with 14.2 points per game. She also averaged 7.2 rebounds and 2 steals in six games. During the final against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

she recorded 16 points, a team-high 13 rebounds and five steals for her second double-double of the tournament to help the United States win a gold medal. She was subsequently named tournament MVP. On June 19, 2025, Edwards was named to team USA's roster for the

2025 FIBA Women's AmeriCup The 2025 FIBA Women's AmeriCup was the 18th edition of the FIBA Women's AmeriCup, which is the main tournament for senior women's basketball national teams of the FIBA Americas. It was held from 28 June to 6 July 2025 in Santiago, Chile. The Un ...

. During the tournament she averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game and won a gold medal.

Career statistics

College

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, 38, , 1, , 21.2, , 53.5, , 0.0, , 78.5, , 5.0, , 1.2, , 1.1, , 0.5, , 1.7, , 12.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 38, , 1, , 21.2, , 53.5, , 0.0, , 78.5, , 5.0, , 1.2, , 1.1, , 0.5, , 1.7, , 12.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="14", Statistics retrieved from

Sports-Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey Ref ...

References

External links

South Carolina Gamecocks bioFIBA bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Joyce 2006 births Living people 21st-century American sportswomen American women's basketball players Basketball players from South Carolina Forwards (basketball) McDonald's High School All-Americans Sportspeople from Camden, South Carolina South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball players United States women's national basketball team players