Camden’s Joyce Edwards selected to McDonald’s All-American Game

            Camden – Joyce Edwards’ high school basketball career in the state of South Carolina is over. She helped lead Camden High School to its second consecutive AAA girls basketball championship on Saturday with a 44-22 trium0h over Wren at Florence Center.

           The 6-foot-3-inch Edwards, a University of South Carolina signee who is rated by many as the top senior in the country, has one more high school game left to play. Edwards was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game later this month.

          She received her jersey for the game during a packed-out assembly  at the school on February 28.

          Edwards has started for Camden since she was in seventh grade. She capped off her career with a monster season. Edwards averaged 31.3 points per game and 13.3 rebounds for a season double-double. She also averaged 4.0 assists, 4.5 steals and 3.3 blocked shots.

She finished her career at Camden with 3, 937 points.

          Edwards was also selected as the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association AAA Player of the Year as well as the Region 6-AAA Player of the Year.

         Edwards was joined on both the All-State and All-Region team by freshman Braylin Mungo. She averaged 12.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4’4 assists and 3.7 steals.

        Joining Edwards and Mungo on the All-Region team were senior Zyasia Carter, junior Morgan Champion and senior Deanna Jeffcoat.

       Carter averaged 9.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.1 steals. Champion averaged 10.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.9 steals. Jeffcoat averaged 5.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals.

CAMDEN’S MACKLIN ALL-STATE PICK, NORTH-SOUTH SELECTION

          Camden High School senior boys basketball player Israel Macklin was selected to the SCBCA’s AAA All-State team and was chosen to play in the North-South All-Star Game.

          The 6-4 Macklin averaged 21.0 points per game to lead the Bulldogs, who finished the year with a 10-18 overall and a 4-6 mark in region play. Macklin average averaged 5.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 steals.

         “Israel’s just an outstanding player,” said Camden head coach Sterling Council. “He can score, but he also does so many other things.”

         The Bulldogs will be losing their top two scorers to graduation. Senior Damion Howey averaged 14.8 points.

         The Bulldogs finished fourth in a region that included Crestwood, which was atop the AAA polls for the vast majority of the season, and Darlington, which ended up winning the lower state title and playing for the state crown.

         “I felt like we were playing for third place the whole season,” Council said. “The last two games is where we dropped the ball (falling to Marlboro County and Crestwood).

          I wouldn't say we underachieved,” Council added. “My whole team was giving it all they had throughout whole season. We lost six or seven games where we were simply not taking care of the basketball. Not executing, not valuing possessions, is our Achilles heel. We were not closing out games.”

        With Macklin and Howle graduating, Camden will be relying on junior Jahmarie McLeod to lead the offense. He averaged 11.9 points to go with 4.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals.

        Also graduating will be Tezzie Stafford, who averaged 7.8 points and 4.6 rebounds and Amauri Simon, who averaged 3.1 points.

       “We’re losing our top two scorers,” Council said. “we’ve got a young group that I’m looking forward to molding. Some of them moved up during the course of the season.”