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Cornerback Jaycee Horn must be really proud of his girlfriend, Brea Beal. After all, the former South Carolina point guard was selected in the second round (24th overall) of the 2023 WNBA Draft.
She will trade the garnet and black colors of the Gamecocks for the blue, green, and gray of the Minnesota Lynx.
Horn shared the good news on Twitter.
Beal signed with Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports Group days before the 2023 draft. Paul is a close friend of Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. Beal is one of five South Carolina players selected in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
The 22-year-old guard has impressive credentials dating back to high school. The Illinois-born Beal played high school basketball for Rock Island and became a three-time Illinois Miss Basketball awardee. She is the third sophomore to bag that honor after Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker.
Brea Beal is also one of two individuals to win Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year thrice. She dominated the opposition during her junior year with an average of 21.9 points, ten rebounds, 3.3 assists, and three blocks per game. Those numbers enabled her to lead Rock Island to their third straight runner-up finish in the Class 4A sectionals.
She made the most of her senior year by posting 24.9 points, 13.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 3.4 blocks, and 3.4 steals per game. More importantly, she led her squad to a sectional title after a 30-2 record.
Her triumph led to more recognition. Aside from being the 2019 USA Today’s Illinois Player of the Year, she was a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s All-America Third Team member. Beal was also a McDonald’s All-American and Naismith All-America Third-Team member in the same year.
Basketball scouts took notice of her talents early in her career. She even received her first collegiate basketball offer in sixth grade. However, the five-star recruit chose South Carolina over Illinois, Michigan, and Louisville.
Brea Beal is a South Carolina Gamecocks legend
Brea Beal was a four-year starter in college and one of the most well-rounded players for the Gamecocks. As the conductor of coach Dawn Staley’s offense, she helped South Carolina win three SEC Regular Season and three SEC tournament titles. Her crowing glory is the 2022 national championship, which they won against another powerhouse team, the University of Connecticut Huskies.
During her stint in collegiate basketball, the Gamecocks compiled a 129-9 record, including a 45-7 mark versus ranked opponents. Beal is also a workhorse, holding the school’s single-season record of most games played and started, with 37. She also started 33 games, the most by any first-year South Carolina player. Her 137 career starts also rank second in team history.
True to her game, Beal contributed to the Gamecocks in several ways. As a result, she had two double-doubles and 23 games of at least ten points. She also has 11 games with at least ten rebounds. Beal also posted the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in team history, with 2.9 in 2022-23. During her senior year, she was second on the team in blocks, third in rebounding, and fourth in assists.
She finished her collegiate basketball career averaging 6.1 points, five rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. Beal had a season-high 16 points in their Elite Eight matchup against second-ranked Maryland. Unfortunately, they bowed out of the competition in the Final Four against Caitlin Clark-led Iowa.
Brea Beal is majoring in retailing in South Carolina, with a focus on digital innovations and fashion merchandising. Her basketball prowess also earned her a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with the video-sharing website Cameo.
How Brea Beal found love in Jaycee Horn
Beal and Jaycee Horn met while they were student-athletes in South Carolina. Horn played three seasons for the Gamecocks before declaring for the 2021 NFL Draft, wherein the Carolina Panthers selected him eighth overall.
Beal made their relationship public in 2021 when she posted this black-and-white photo on her Instagram account with the caption, “got you 4L (for life).”
Horn was in attendance when Brea Beal and the Gamecocks won the 2022 national championship. They even took a photo together with Beal carrying the national championship trophy.
They were both born in November, with Horn’s birthday on the 26th while Beal’s is on the 8th. Horn is 23 years old while Beal is 22.
