How Joyce Edwards is ‘finding her footing’ early this season for USC
As is custom, Dawn Staley met with the local media on Tuesday before South Carolina’s next game, Wednesday against Winthrop.
Typically, in these gaggles Staley is the one breaking news to reporters. But today, reporters got to break some news to Staley.
South Carolina star sophomore forward Joyce Edwards was named SEC Player of the Week for the first time in her career, the conference announced Tuesday. When Staley was asked about it, she admitted she had no clue that Edwards had earned the honor.
“Did she get that? When did that come out? I missed that,” Staley said.
Staley proceeded to turn around and yell the news to her team, which was met with cheers from Edwards’ teammates and coaches.
The recognition for Edwards is well deserved. South Carolina moved to 4-0 last week after wins over Clemson and No. 8 Southern Cal. In those games, Edwards averaged 17.5 points, nine rebounds, three assists, 2.5 blocks and 1.5 steals. She finished with a team-high 18 points against the Trojans and added on 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.
“It’s great,” Staley said. “Joyce is finding her footing and she’s very comfortable with what she’s doing out there on both sides of the ball. I just like her activity on both sides of the ball, I like her competitiveness and her will to win. It’s on display every time we step on the floor.”
Staley has challenged Edwards to be more of a two-way player heading into her sophomore year. Through just four games this season, it would appear she’s accomplishing just that.
Edwards leads the No. 2 ranked Gamecocks in scoring so far at 18 points per game. She’s also averaging 6.5 rebounds per game, second on the team behind Madina Okot.
On defense, Edwards has shown she can be a force in the paint. Edwards recorded a career-high three blocks in the win over Southern Cal and leads the team in that category. Edwards’ mark of 2.3 blocks per game is also double the amount she had last year (albeit, we’re only four games into the season).
“It was more of a focus thing,” Edwards said of being challenged to be a two-way player. “Putting my mind on something, I feel like I’m a really competitive person and I want to really meet my goals. I feel like she’s just challenging me in a way, so I can be a better overall player. But especially my defense. I’ve been really focusing on staying in a stance, staying low, just being disciplined overall.”
Edwards and the Gamecocks enter somewhat of a lull in their schedule this week after their recent matchup with Southern Cal. South Carolina will play Winthrop on Wednesday and Queens on Sunday, two mid-major opponents who the Gamecocks should beat handedly.
Although South Carolina will no-doubt be the heavy favorite in both games, Edwards said there’s still stuff to be learned from the matchups.
“Every game has their own lessons,” Edwards said. “Every team does something a little different. So you just go in a game with an open mind. You do what you usually do, you show a lot of effort.”
Edwards said she felt South Carolina executed its defensive game plan “really well” last time out and will look to keep its offense flowing consistently across moving forward.
“I feel like we can execute our defense really well. I feel like our game plan that we put in, we executed well…I feel like our offense, we get a little stagnant sometimes. Just keeping our offense in the flow, I mean, we kind of realized we had that problem in previous games, but just continue to work on that.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 4:28 PM.
