Dawn Staley always finds a way to build a dominant squad. But this season, she finally had the perfect pieces to make a championship run. But Chloe Kitts’ ACL tear-and players leaving for W, seemed to take that chance away. At least, that’s what it looked like at first glance. But seven games in, and Joyce Edwards had filled the void. She did it so well that even Staley couldn’t help but shower her with praise.

Kitts wasn’t just another starter; she was South Carolina’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder last season, averaging 10.2 points and 7.7 boards while winning SEC Tournament MVP and helping them reach the 2025 national title game against UConn. Combine that with three starters taken in the 2025 WNBA Draft, and it looked like Staley’s frontcourt identity had been ripped out overnight.

“She’s a player. She’s very confident in what she can do on the court because she puts the work in. This is what she’s supposed to be doing,” Staley told TNT in her postgame, on-court interview. “She puts the work in before practice, after practice. And shoutout to Charlie Edwards for always being in the gym with her.”

And honestly, the confidence Staley is talking about is impossible to miss once Edwards steps on the court. She’s a true two-way player and delivers on everything South Carolina needs. And that’s exactly what she did against Duke. With South Carolina desperate for a bucket and stuck in a scoring drought with 3:30 left, Edwards turned into a quarterback.

That work has already started to show up in the hardware. Just days before the Duke game, she picked up her first SEC Player of the Week award for back-to-back standout performances against Clemson and Southern Cal, and still shrugged it off as “really meaning nothing” compared to chasing a title.

Inbounding the ball, she fired a perfectly timed, one-handed, full-court pass to TaNiya Latson for a crucial score. And that was only one of her many impressive plays. She finished the night with 22 points and six assists, helping the Gamecocks secure an 83–66 win at the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas. The sophomore has been thriving as a passer and scoring in transition, becoming a key contributor to South Carolina’s 24 fast-break points.

It also continued a ridiculous scoring stretch. Just three nights earlier, she’d dropped 25 points in a 121–49 romp over Queens South Carolina’s highest scoring outing of the entire Dawn Staley era while repeatedly igniting transition with defensive rebounds and hit-ahead passes.

“I love when Joyce runs the floor,” point guard Raven Johnson said in the postgame press conference. “She runs the floor, she knows the ball is coming. It’s like poetry in motion.”

That’s exactly right. There’s a reason she was named SEC Player of the Week in only her second season. This was her third straight 20-point game and her fourth of the season. She now leads the No. 2 Gamecocks with 19.8 points per game. Also, she’s averaging 6 rebounds, second only to Madina Okot.

It’s a massive jump from her freshman year, when she averaged 12.7 points and 5.0 rebounds; she’s upped that to nearly 20 and 6 on over 60% shooting from the field, while almost quadrupling her blocks per game from 0.4 to around 1.8.

Even defensively, she’s a force in the paint. She matched a career high with three blocks in the win over Clemson, then followed it up against No. 8 Southern Cal in the “Real SC” showdown with 17 points and 10 rebounds as South Carolina pounded the Trojans 56–32 on the glass.

A new chemistry is forming between Edwards and Okot

Edwards and Okot are growing into one of South Carolina’s most dynamic frontcourt duos. Against Duke, Edwards delivered her fourth 20-point game of the season, while Okot added 23 points, 13 rebounds, and four steals, marking her fifth double-double of the year. And of course, this pairing wasn’t accidental. Last year, Edwards played alongside Sania Feagin and Chloe Kitts-a trio of versatile forwards sharing the paint. It shifted the dynamics for everyone. But this year is different. 

Staley brought Okot out of the transfer portal for post-production and to help Edwards specifically. Okot is a traditional center. At Mississippi State last season, Okot quietly flirted with a double-double every night, averaging 11.3 points and 9.6 rebounds while leading the SEC and ranking fourth nationally in field-goal percentage at .649, with 12 double-doubles on the year.

Her presence inside gives Edwards the freedom to attack, create, and roam. Their games complement each other perfectly. And clearly, the plan is finally coming together as Okot and Edwards combined for 45 points in only their seventh game on the floor together.

“It’s growing every day,” Staley said when asked about their partnership. “We knew they had to build chemistry. They didn’t play with each other for a long time. Joyce wasn’t with us over the summer. They couldn’t build that chemistry when the stakes weren’t as high as they were today.”

Well, Edwards spent most of the summer with USA Basketball, gaining valuable experience. But she missed the preseason time with Okot. However, as the two are playing together consistently, the results are showing.

That “valuable experience” included starting for Team USA at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup, where she averaged 9.9 points and 5.6 rebounds and helped the U.S. win gold in Santiago, Chile. Later in the summer, Joyce Edwards led the U.S. to another title at the FIBA 3×3 Nations League Americas Conference, topping her team at 7.9 points per game and collecting a third gold medal in as many international events.

But would it be the same against the Texas Longhorns??