South Carolina women's basketball: Joyce Edwards scores 1,000th career point

Joyce Edwards scored her 1,000th career point on Thursday night against Mississippi State, one of the fastest players in program history to hit that mark. 

Edwards entered the game needing 18 points to reach the milestone, and she didn’t waste much time getting there. She had seven points in the first three minutes of the game and 13 at halftime. Edwards added a layup and a pair of free throws to get to 999 points.

With 6:29 left in the third quarter, Edwards was fouled in transition. She sank the first to get to an even 1,000. Then, with the crowd cheering, she calmly added the second.

“You come to South Carolina to win, and that’s all I try to do every game,” Edwards said, claiming she didn’t know how close she was to the milestone.

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“Do you believe that?” Dawn Staley said. “Joyce knows about everything. She knew how close she was, she knew when she was going to do it. It’s great. She can put the ball in the hole. We’re not surprised how quickly she got it. We’re just happy she’s on our team.”

Edwards reached the milestone in her 64th career game. That’s faster than A’ja Wilson (69th game) and Sheila Foster (68th game), the top two scorers in program history. Edwards didn’t want to compare herself to Wilson.

“Obviously, she’s a great player, and I’m trying to be where she’s at,” Edwards said. “I don’t think it really means much because she has accomplished so much more than me in basketball. Everybody’s goal is to be just like her.”

Entering Thursday night’s game, Edwards had 982 career points. This season, she is averaging 20.3 points. If she maintains that average, Edwards would have one of the top ten single-season scoring averages in program history. 

She could join Wilson (22.6 points in 2017-18) as the only two players of the Dawn Staley era to average 20 points in a season. Since Shannon Johnson averaged 20-plus points for three seasons from 1993-96, Wilson and Jocelyn Penn (23.9 points in 2002-03) are the only Gamecocks to average over 20 points in a season.

The fastest players in program history to reach 1,000 points are Katrina Anderson (47 games), Beth Hunt (48 games), Denise Nanney (57 games), and Johnson (59 games).

Edwards is only the third sophomore in program history to reach 1,000 career points. Wilson and Foster also accomplished the feat as sophomores.

Edwards has a career scoring average of 15.6 points, which is behind the pace of South Carolina’s top three career scorers but still 10th in program history. Foster averaged 16.9 points, Wilson averaged 17.3, and Johnson averaged 20.9 points. Johnson played almost 30 fewer games than the others.

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Anderson and Hunt also reached the milestone in only two seasons, but they were transfers who only played their junior and senior seasons at South Carolina.

Edwards may not be the only Gamecock to reach 1,000 points this season. 

Tessa Johnson needs 136 points. She is averaging 14.1 points this season, which would have her hitting 1,000 in the SEC Tournament or early in the NCAA Tournament.

Raven Johnson needs 127 more points. At her current scoring pace, she could reach 1,000 points during the NCAA tournament.

Ta’Niya Latson has 2,399 career points, but 2,095 came at Florida State. 

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