Standout freshmen Strong, Edwards meet for national title

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sarah Strong and Joyce Edwards have played against each other since about the eighth grade.

They were two of the top girls basketball prospects in the country when they were AAU opponents. They shared co-MVP honors at the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Girls Game and crossed paths again on USA Basketball's girls Under-19 team.

Strong went on to play for Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies. Edwards went with Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks. The two rising stars will meet again on Sunday, when No. 2 seed UConn faces top-seeded South Carolina in the national championship game in Tampa, Florida.

Edwards played at Camden High School in South Carolina and was the 2024 Gatorade National Player of the Year.

Strong, who played at Grace Christian School in North Carolina, was the 2024 Naismith High School Player of the Year.

Strong remembers one key thing about playing Edwards back then in AAU.

“They had a great team. They beat us,” she said. “It is what it is.”

Both are having standout freshman seasons for two storied programs.

Strong, the top-ranked player in her recruiting class, is averaging 16.2 points per game for the Huskies — second on the team behind Paige Bueckers' 20 — and leads the team with 8.7 rebounds.

The 6-foot-2 forward entered her first NCAA tournament sitting in the top 10 all time among UConn freshmen in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots. Only Maya Moore had done that before.

She's also the first Division I freshman with at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 50 steals and 50 blocked shots since Candace Parker.

“Sarah — how do I say this? In the next three years, she might be the best player to come out of UConn,” said South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. "And those are strong words. I know Stewy (Breanna Stewart) won four (national titles). But what she’s able to do — stay calm, the IQ — is off the charts. The skill set, off the charts.

“Big play after big play after big play. Such a great complement to an already skilled UConn team. I think she’s the piece that puts it all together. She makes it all work.”

Strong and Staley also go way back. Strong's mother, Allison Feaster, was teammates with Staley on the WNBA's Charlotte Sting and they remained good friends after their playing days were over. Feaster's kept Staley updated on Strong's basketball growth.

The Gamecocks recruited Strong to come to South Carolina, but the young prospect had been in talks with Auriemma’s and UConn for a while.

“We probably came in a little bit late on Sarah. I think UConn was recruiting her much earlier in the process than we were," Staley said.

“But being a teammate (with Feaster) I thought would actually help us out a little bit more than what it helped us out,” Staley quipped. “Like, we made history together.”

Staley did end up with a key contributor of her own in Edwards, who led a deep and experienced Gamecocks team with 12.7 points per game this season.

Edwards had been quiet during the NCAA Tournament despite her stellar freshman campaign, which included a career-high 28 points and five rebounds against Florida in February. She was held to fewer than six points in each game of the tournament before the national semifinal on Friday, when she had 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and a steal.

It was Edwards' fourth career double-double and most rebounds she's had in a game this season. South Carolina improved to 4-0 when she has a double-double.

“I’m happy for Joyce because I know as a young person, you’re struggling in the very thing that you love to do," Staley said. "She really works at it. She watches film. She’s obsessively working out. So you want people like that to enjoy the fruits of their labor.”

Edwards said her teammates rallied around her during her tournament slump. That helped her not get too low, and trust that her breakout game was coming.

“I feel I was more definitive,” Edwards said. “More open minded. Giving what the game gave me, not overthinking, not second-guessing, just going.”

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