The No. 2-ranked South Carolina women’s basketball team will have a new addition when it takes on No. 4 Texas on Thursday night.
Midseason add Alicia Tournebize will be available to play, coach Dawn Staley confirmed in a media availability on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-7 forward played professionally in France for a few years before announcing she would join the Gamecocks in December. Tournebize, 18, arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan. 1 and has been practicing since Jan. 6, according to the Greenville News. She warmed up with South Carolina before they beat Georgia 65-43 on Sunday, but didn’t take the court.
‘She looked good,’ Staley told reporters Wednesday. ‘She’ll play, she’ll definitely play.’
Tournebize, who hails from Vichy, France, averaged 12.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in the 2025 U18 EuroBasket Tournament for her country. She has also garnered attention for effortlessly throwing down one-handed dunks.
Since joining South Carolina, she’s impressed her teammates with not only her skills, but basketball IQ.
‘She’s smart like she catches on things fast,’ Gamecocks sophomore Joyce Edwards told reporters. ‘Her defense is great. Offensively she can shoot, she can space the floor out. I feel like nobody has played her so it’s going to be hard to scout against her and I’m just excited to see her out there playing.’
Tournebize is part of a wave of international players with professional experience coming into women’s college basketball. Belgian forward Nastja Claessens — who was drafted by the WNBA’s Washington Mystics in 2024 but never signed a contract with them — joined Kansas State this season and is averaging 11.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Liza Astakhova played professionally in Russia before signing with North Carolina this season.