Edwards leads No. 1 seed South Carolina to 108-48 win over Tennessee Tech to start March Madness

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Freshman Joyce Edwards scored 22 points in her first women’s NCAA Tournament game as No. 1 seed South Carolina began its run at a second straight national title with a 108-48 victory over Tennessee Tech on Friday.

The Gamecocks (31-3) improved to 17-1 in the past four women’s tournaments, winning in 2022 and 2024. The lone defeat came to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the national semifinals in 2023.

With Edwards, named to the all-Southeastern Conference first-team this season, leading the way, the top seeds of the Birmingham 2 Regional looked poised for another title in a few weeks.

The 6-foot-3 forward swears she’s always nervous before games and felt some jitters before stepping out for to start her NCAA Tournament career. But she looked and played as poised as she has all season for the Gamecocks.

“Everything comes at you, you don’t know what to expect,” Edwards said. “Once you get your first rebound, the nerves settle down.”

Edwards had more points in her NCAA debut than Gamecocks national champ and WNBA No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston, who went for 20 in a win over Mercer in the 2021 event.

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Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said Edwards’ relentless approach has endeared her to her older teammates. Edwards rarely stops moving on the court and when she sees a layup go in, Staley thinks it opens the floodgates for her all-SEC player.

“The basket gets big,” Staley said.

South Carolina will face ninth-seeded Indiana on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers outlasted eighth-seeded Utah 76-68 earlier Friday.

Edwards scored six straight points to open up the game as the Gamecocks went ahead 31-11. The Golden Eagles (26-6), champions of the Ohio Valley Conference, saw their 17-game win streak come to an end.

Taris Thornton led Tennessee Tech with 13 points.

MiLaysia Fulwiley added 15 points as all 12 Gamecocks who played scored baskets.

Tennessee Tech coach Kim Rosamond was impressed with the Gamecocks overall skill and discipline. South Carolina made 43 of 67 field goals.

“If they shoot the basketball like that the rest of the way, they’re going to be almost impossible to beat,” Rosamond said.

Takeaways

Tennessee Tech: A bit was made about the Golden Eagles beating South Carolina in the NCAAs 36 years ago. And maybe some memories were stirred when Tech took a 2-0 lead. But things quickly turned against the Eagles as the Gamecocks went on a 20-4 run.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks had have their share of opening NCAA blowouts — they’ve beaten their past three first-round opponents by an average margin of 47 points — and this was not that much different except for the team reaching 100 points for the third time this season.

Key moment

It came early as South Carolina dominated from the start with Edwards scoring six straight after Tech trailed 5-4 to get her team going.

Help from a friend

South Carolina’s Staley had her good friend and Olympic teammate Lisa Leslie at the game and says she might take advantage of Leslie’s knowledge of the game at her team’s Saturday morning film sessions in preparation for Indiana.

“We absolutely love basketball,” Staley said. “I’m going to pick her brain about some of the things that we need to do to continue to help our players.”

Rematches

The first of what could be a few recent rematches take place for South Carolina on Sunday with the Hoosiers, who fell to the Gamecocks 79-75 a year ago in the Sweet 16. The Gamecocks also have faced the second, third and fourth seeded teams in Duke, North Carolina and Maryland in recent seasons with the ACC Tournament champion Blue Devils losing at South Carolina this past December.

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