Joyce Edwards reacts to joining South Carolina’s 1,000 career point club
South Carolina star forward Joyce Edwards joined a group of historic Gamecocks on Thursday night.
The sophomore scored her 1,000th career point with a free throw in the third quarter of No. 3 South Carolina’s 88-45 win over Mississippi State at home.
Edwards came into the game with 982 points under her belt as a Gamecock and needed just 18 points to join the 1,000 club.
Did she know she was 18 points away?
“No,” Edwards nonchalantly said. “I don’t think about that stuff.”
Now it’s up for debate on if that was really the case. Her head coach doesn’t quite think so.
“You believe that?” Dawn Staley said with a laugh. “Joyce knows about everything. She knew how close she was. She knew when she was gonna do it.”
Edwards finished with 21 points, bringing her career total to 1,003 points.
She reached 1,000 points in just 64 games, making her the fifth-fastest player to accomplish the feat in South Carolina women’s basketball program history. That’s notably faster than Gamecock greats Sheila Foster (68 games) and A’ja Wilson (69 games) who both happen to have their jerseys retired (and a statute in front of Colonial Life Arena, in Wilson’s case).
Edwards, a Camden native, said she didn’t know she had scored 1,000 points faster than Wilson did.
“Obviously she’s a great player,” Edwards said of Wilson. “I’m trying to be where she’s at. I don’t think it really means much, because she has accomplished so much more than me in basketball. Everybody’s goal is just to be just like her.”
Did Edwards ever have any visions of setting records like Wilson did? Again, her answer is no.
“You come to South Carolina to win,” Edwards said. “That’s all I try to do every game.”
Edwards has played dominant offense all season long for the Gamecocks. She came into Thursday averaging career highs in field goal percentage (59.9%), effective field goal percentage (60.2%), total rebounds (6.4) and assists (2.5).
She led the team in scoring last year with just 12.7 points and leads the team again this year with 20.3 points per game. If Edwards finishes the year averaging at least 20 points per game, she’d be the first to do so since Wilson did in the 2017-18 season.
Edwards is the 40th Gamecock to score at least 1,000 points in their career. The last South Carolina player to hit the milestone was Kamilla Cardoso in 2024.
“She puts the ball in a hole, and we’re not surprised at how quickly she got it,” Staley said. “We’re just happy that she’s on our team.”
The next career scoring mark for Edwards is 1,500 career points. The last Gamecock to achieve that feat was Zia Cookie in 2023. While it’s unlikely Edwards will break the record for the fastest Gamecock to hit that mark (Shannon Johnson did it in 79 games), there’s a solid shot she’ll beat Wilson again. It took Wilson 98 games to score 1,500 points.
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 8:00 AM.
