SOUTH CAROLINA BASKETBALL RECRUITING
A few Gamecock signees are one step closer to competing in one of the biggest high school basketball events of the year.
Four basketball signees were named McDonald's All-American nominees and are now waiting to see if they'll make the final rosters next week.
One of the Gamecocks' three men's signees Trae Hannibal made the cut as well as women's basketball signees Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Brea Beal.
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Hannibal was one of five men's players nominated from South Carolina and is on a list that includes Cardinal Newman's Chico Carter Jr., Sumter's Cal Felder, Tre Jackson from Blythewood, Josiah James from Porter Gaud and Malcolm Wilson out of Ridge View.
Boston (Massachusetts), Cooke (Ohio) and Beal (Illinois) were all part of their state's finalists as well.
In total, 24 men and 24 women are selected for the event.
The last McDonald's for the men's team was PJ Dozier in 2015. Brian Bowen was also an All-American in 2017 but spent a semester at Louisville before transferring to South Carolina.
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A'ja Wilson, Bianca Cuevas-Moore and Jatarie White in 2014 were the last on the women's side.
The final rosters will be announced Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. on ESPN's The Jump and again on the 6 p.m. edition of SportsCenter on ESPN as well.
The game will be held on March 7 with the women's game starting at 5 p.m. and the men's immediately afterwards at 7 p.m. Both will be televised on ESPN2.
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Hannibal, the first commitment and signee in the 2019 class for Frank Martin, is off to a stellar start for Hartsville this season averaging 26 points, 4.4 assists and 8.7 rebounds per game. He's one of three signees in the class that includes big man Wildens Leveque and wing Trey Anderson.
Boston, Cooke and Beal are all five-star prospects according to ESPN and are in the top 15 overall in the 2019 class.
They make up 60 percent of Dawn Staley's current class that also includes five-star Canadian forward Laeticia Amihere (No. 10 overall) and three-star Olivia Thompson.
View the full list of nominees here.