South Carolina's Joyce Edwards, Ayla McDowell and Kamilla Cardoso receive love from Golden State Valkyries star ahead of the 2025 FIBA AmeriCup

The South Carolina Gamecocks will be well represented at the upcoming 2025 FIBA AmeriCup tournament in Chile, which tipped off on Saturday. Sophomore Joyce Edwards will compete for Team USA, while incoming five-star freshman Ayla McDowell will represent Brazil at the competition.

Also competing at the showcase event will be former Gamecocks forward and Chicago Sky star Kamilla Cardoso, who will play for Brazil.

The Gamecocks showed their support for their current and former players with a graphic celebrating their participation on Instagram that was captioned:

"3️⃣ Gamecocks 2️⃣ Teams 1️⃣ Tournament. The 2025 FIBA AmeriCup starts tomorrow!"

Former South Carolina and current Golden Valkyries star Bree Hall hyped up her former teammates in the comment section of the Instagram post.

"Oof I can't root for just one soo...I'm rooting for both," Hall wrote.

South Carolina has enjoyed a rich representation in AmeriCup

Ayla McDowell is the No. 15 prospect in the Class of 2025, according to On3. She committed to the Gamecocks last year over offers from the UConn Huskies and the UCLA Bruins. She made her Brazil debut at last year's U18 AmeriCup and will make the step up to the senior team this summer.

When McDowell committed to the Gamecocks last year, coach Dawn Staley lavished praise on her and made a huge prediction about her future.

"She's (McDowell) a great addition," Staley said. "She's a big long guard that can score, that can defend, quality individual, she will one day be a captain, she is that put together, she wants to be a pro, she wants to take the world by storm and she feels like we're the best program to put her in that position and we're incredibly happy to have her."

Joyce Edwards has extensive experience with Team USA, winning three gold medals, with two at the 2024 FIBA U18 AmeriCup and the 2023 FIBA U19 World Cup.

Kamilla Cardoso led Brazil to the gold medal of the 2023 AmeriCup, where she was named the tournament's MVP after beating Team USA in the final.

Because Team USA and Brazil are not in the same group, the earliest that the former and current South Carolina Gamecocks contingent could meet would be at the quarterfinal stage.

Next season, Edwards and McDowell will team up in Columbia and attempt to replicate Cardoso's heroics by leading the Gamecocks to a national championship.

About the author

Cabral Opiyo is a journalist who covers college sports at Sportskeeda. With work experience spanning over 10 years, Cabral is an avid follower of college football and basketball and what goes into making the perfect elite prospect. He brings the news as it happens and analyzes football games to a high degree of accuracy.

As a writer, he loves bringing to life historical and iconic moments with his writing, fueled by extensive and verifiable research, creating an image in the reader's eyes.

Cabral has been known to sneak away from a high-profile NBA game to catch an obscure college basketball game and is an avid re-watcher of Tim Duncan and San Antonio Spurs games from the 2000s.

UConn winning its first national title under Dan Hurley remains his best college sports moment. Cabral rates A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark as his favorite players due to their productivity and the Alabama Crimson Tide as his favorite college team.

In addition, Cabral follows football and is a huge Italian and Brazilian football fan. He has written about football for a decade and held a byline with Outside of the Boot Football.

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Edited by Krutik Jain