South Carolina welcomed students back on Monday as classes resumed for the spring semester, and one new student in particular would have been hard to miss. Gamecock women's basketball welcomed Alicia Tournebize to the team, a 6-foot-7 native of France.
The 18-year-old forward signed a financial-aid agreement to attend the school and join the team for the remainder of the season this past December. She hails from the city of Vichy and began her career playing for the Tango Bourges Basket of the Ligue Féminine de Basketball on its U15 team. She earned a spot on the team's professional roster for the 2025-26 season.
Tournebize went on to earn a spot on the All-Star 5 at the 2025 FIBA U18 EuroBasket, where she led her team in both scoring and rebounding at 12.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Both marks ranked top 10 among all players in the tournament.
Her long, towering frame sets her up to complement 6-foot-6 senior center Madina Okot in the paint. Pair that with the length of South Carolina's leading scorer, sophomore forward Joyce Edwards at 6-foot-3, and size emerges as a major strength for the Gamecocks' roster.
"Once we can see how she fits in with us, we'll start running some specialized plays for her," head coach Dawn Staley said.
Okot has provided the Gamecocks with an immovable presence in the paint this season, with her 11.3 rebounds per game being the second-most by any player in the SEC this season. Enter Tournebize, standing at an inch taller, and bringing close-out speed that aids a premiere ability to protect the rim.
Tournebize's mother, Isabelle Fijalkowski, played basketball at the University of Colorado in 1994 and helped the team win a Big 8 Conference championship. She'd later get selected by the WNBA's Cleveland Rockers in the 1997 draft. Her 6-foot-5 frame helped her win two Euroleague championships and five French League championships.
Fijalkowski played on the French women's team in the 2000 Olympic Games and was a EuroBasket gold medalist in 2001, earning her inductions into the French Basketball Academy Hall of Fame in 2011 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2020.
In 2024, at just 17 years old, Tournebize became the first French woman ever to dunk in a game, eventually performing a two-handed dunk in the third-place game of the FIBA U18 EuroBasket in 2025.
Fans of South Carolina women's basketball wouldn't be unfamiliar with seeing the Gamecocks dunk in-game; forward Ashlyn Watkins had thrown down a dunk in each of her first three seasons on the team. Watkins opted to sit out the 2025-26 season to deal with personal matters.
Tournebize arrived in Columbia on Jan. 1 and joined the team's trip to Gainesville where it defeated Florida. She is yet to dress for a game but is ramping up as the Gamecocks take on No. 4 Texas this Thursday at home.
"She's been having to do orientations," Staley said. "We want to get her some more practice time ... there's only school and classes in front of her, which will be her normal."
The Gamecocks have won 10 straight games and sit at 17-1 as they prepare for a shot at revenge against the Longhorns, the only team to hand South Carolina a loss this season. Staley provided an update on Tournebize's availability at Wednesday's practice.
"She looked good," Staley said. "She'll play. She'll definitely play."
The addition of Tournebize will lift South Carolina to 11 active players for the first time all season, and the Gamecocks will need as much help as they can get to defeat the No. 4 Longhorns on Thursday at Colonial Life Arena.