South Carolina women’s basketball class of 2025 signee Ayla McDowell was named an 2025 McDonald’s All-American on Monday.
The announcement came live on ESPN’s TV show “NBA Today,” revealing that McDowell will play on the West Team.
McDowell is coach Dawn Staley‘s first and only player so far in the 2025 signing class. The 6-foot-2 wing committed to the Gamecocks via Instagram Live on Oct. 24. She is a five-star recruit ranked No. 22 in her class by ESPN.
She is from Cypress, Texas, outside of Houston and plays for Cypress Springs High School. McDowell is averaging 24.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.1 steals and 1.4 blocked shots per game, according to MaxPreps.com. She averaged 19.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game during the 2023-24 season.
The 48th annual McDonald’s All American Game is on April 1 in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
McDowell played AAU basketball for CyFair Elite with the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class, Aaliyah Chavez. In July, Chavez announced on social media that South Carolina is among her final six schools and she has still not committed as of Jan. 27. CyFair Elite Sports is a non-profit in Texas and is a Nike basketball affiliate. McDowell competed for Brazil in the 2024 FIBA U18 Women’s AmeriCup, leading her team with 14.8 points per game.
Last year, current South Carolina freshmen Joyce Edwards and Maddy McDaniel became the 19th and 20th McDonald’s All-Americans to sign with Staley out of high school. McDowell will be the 26th All-American to play for Staley at South Carolina. Edwards is the leading scorer for the Gamecocks (19-1, 7-0 SEC) this season, averaging 12.2 points per game.
On the current roster, there are 10 All-Americans. Everyone but Chloe Kitts, Adhel Tac, and Sakima Walker were named All-Americans though both Tac and Kitts graduated high school early, which eliminated the possibility of their being selected and playing in the game in the spring of their respective senior seasons.
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McDowell officially signed with South Carolina on Nov. 13.
“She’s a great addition,” Staley said to media the afternoon she signed. “She’s a big, long guard that can score, that can defend, quality individual, she will one day be a captain, she is that put together, she wants to be a pro, she wants to take the world by storm and she feels like we’re the best program to put her in that position and we’re incredibly happy to have her.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina 2025 signee Ayla McDowell named McDonald’s All-American
