South Carolina women’s basketball makes latest cut for nation’s top point guard
The South Carolina women’s basketball team took a big step forward with one of the nation’s top recruits over the weekend.
Five-star point guard Jaloni Cambridge, who ranks as ESPNW’s No. 3 overall recruit for the Class of 2024, listed the Gamecocks as one of her top seven schools Saturday on Instagram.
Reigning national champion LSU, Baylor, Georgia, Ohio State, Florida and Louisville were also listed as finalists for Cambridge, who plays at Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Cambridge’s initial cut — the first she’s made since emerging as a top recruit about seven hours from Columbia — ensures that USC and coach Dawn Staley will enter the summer and the fall with a fighting chance at the country’s top point guard prospect.
Cambridge, listed at 5-foot-6, has won three straight Tennessee Miss Basketball Awards and was also named the Gatorade Tennessee Girls Basketball Player of the Year for 2022-23.
She averaged 27.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 3.9 assists per game as a junior and led Ensworth to a state runner-up finish, according to the Tennessean newspaper, while scoring a career-high 41 points with 13 rebounds in that championship game loss.
Cambridge, a two-time gold medalist with USA Basketball, also won a third consecutive Tennessean Girls Basketball Player of the Year award and was named to the MaxPreps Junior All-America team this past year.
She’ll enter her senior season as one of the top 2024 recruits on South Carolina’s board. The Gamecocks don’t have any verbal commits in this cycle but remain involved with a number of top players, including three of the top six in ESPNW’s updated rankings.
USC is a key player in the recruitment of Joyce Edwards, who plays locally at Camden High School and ranks as ESPNW’s No. 1 overall recruit. Edwards plans to trim her college list down to five at some point this year and then take more visits in the fall before making a decision sometime in December, The State reported last week.
South Carolina is also a top five school for Justice Carlton, a forward at Seven Lakes (Texas) High School. Carlton is the No. 6 recruit in the ESPNW rankings for 2024.
Cambridge, ESPNW’s No. 1 point guard recruit for the class, officially visited South Carolina in January, according to SportsTalkSC. She hasn’t publicly announced a timeline for her decision, though the majority of top recruits choose schools on or before the early signing period, which runs Nov. 8-15.
Last cycle, South Carolina had zero commitments for the Class of 2023 entering October before picking up pledges from Sahnya Jah, Tessa Johnson, Chloe Kitts and MiLaysia Fulwiley by Nov. 10. (Kitts chose to reclassify to the Class of 2022 and enroll early at USC last fall.)
