Led by USC signee Joyce Edwards, Camden cruises to third straight title game
Joyce Edwards had a simple message to her teammates following Tuesday’s state semifinal win.
“The job’s not finished,” said Edwards, the Camden senior.
Edwards and Camden moved one step closer to winning their second straight Class 3A girls basketball championship by defeating Darlington, 71-35, at the Florence Center.
Camden will play Wren for the second straight year in the title game, at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
“We got one more game to reach our end goal,” Edwards said. “This one was a big win for us but at the end of the day no one wants to go home as lower state champions. We want that state ring.”
Edwards was dominant as usual, scoring 34 points and pulling down 14 rebounds as she will have one more game in her storied high school career. The South Carolina signee and McDonald’s All-American went over 3,900 points in her high school career.
Edwards moved into second place earlier this year in SC girls basketball history behind York’s Ivory Latta, who finished with 4,319 points.
Freshman Braylin Mungo added 17 points for the Bulldogs, who won their 48th straight game against an in-state opponent. It was Mungo’s second straight game at point guard in place of senior Zyasia Carter, who suffered a knee injury last week before the third round game against Lower Richland and is out for the season.
Mungo did a good job handling Darlington’s different defensive looks.
“She did a great job for us,” Camden coach Natalie Norris said. “Braylin is a freshman but she has been with us since the seventh grade so she is a third-year freshman. She is doing what we need. We certainly miss Carter at the point but Braylin has stepped up and did a really good job for us.”
It was the third meeting between Region 6-3A teams this year. Camden also won the first two, 98-36 on Jan. 26 and 62-44 on Jan. 31.
Darlington finished third in Region 6-3A but went on a playoff run with wins over Orangeburg-Wilkinson and Crestwood to reach its second state semifinal in the last three years, the other coming in Class 4A.
The Falcons had a strong homecourt advantage with a majority of fans dressed in purple and black. But Camden didn’t let the Falcons’ fans become a factor.
The Bulldogs dominated for much of the game, jumping out to a 32-9 lead midway through the second quarter. The Falcons closed the half on a 9-0 run to trim Camden’s lead to 32-18.
The Falcons tried a variety of defenses and tempo to slow down the Bulldogs, who average 74.8 points a game, but none worked for long stretches of time.
Camden outscored the Falcons, 26-15, in the third quarter to lead 58-33.
“This is a very focused team and a very veteran team for the most part,” Norris said. “... They were very focused tonight and have their eye on the prize.”
