Joyce Edwards scored 28 points to lead the No. 3 South Carolina women’s basketball team to a 71-56 win over Texas A&M on Monday night in College Station, Texas. Tessa Johnson contributed 19 points and matched her career best with five three-pointers.
South Carolina improved its record to 22-2 overall and 8-1 in the Southeastern Conference. The team held a lead of up to 16 points during the game, but Texas A&M narrowed the margin to five before Edwards responded by scoring eight points in a decisive 9-0 run. This pushed South Carolina’s lead to 67-53 with less than two minutes left.
Johnson made all five of her three-pointers in the first half, finishing the game shooting five-for-eleven from long range.
Texas A&M (8-10, 1-8 SEC) lost its sixth consecutive game but showed improvement compared to previous contests, where it had suffered four losses by margins of more than 25 points. Ny’ceara Pryor led the Aggies with 14 points.
In the fourth quarter, Salese Blow helped bring Texas A&M within four points by making four free throws. Alicia Tournebize scored South Carolina’s first point of the quarter on a free throw with seven and a half minutes remaining. The Gamecocks did not make their first field goal of the quarter until Edwards hit a jump shot that extended their lead.
By late in the third quarter, South Carolina was ahead by sixteen before Texas A&M went on a seven-point run, including a three-pointer from Pryor. After two free throws from South Carolina, Pryor hit another three at the buzzer to cut the deficit to eight entering the final period.
According to South Carolina’s program notes, eight out of nine Gamecock players scored during the contest, with two reaching double figures. Joyce Edwards tied her SEC career high with 28 points and recorded her fifth double-double this season; she also set a new career mark by making ten free throws and scored fourteen points in the final quarter—more than any other Gamecock has managed in one period this season.
Tessa Johnson began hot from behind the arc, making her first four attempts and finishing with five three-pointers—a personal best for an SEC game. Maddy McDaniel added seven points in her first career start along with three assists and three steals. Raven Johnson finished just short of a triple-double, tallying seven points, seven rebounds, and eight assists—the latter tying her SEC career high.
