Business trip and homecoming: Aliyah Boston returns to Virgin Islands with Gamecocks
It’s become increasingly common across women’s college basketball for top programs to schedule games so their players can go back to their hometowns and play in front of friends and family.
Dawn Staley and No. 5 South Carolina are taking that to the next level this Thanksgiving weekend, competing in the Paradise Jam tournament in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the home of freshman forward Aliyah Boston.
Boston left her home, her parents and her entire life behind her at the age of 12 to pursue her basketball dream, staying with her sister and aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts, and developing into one of the nation’s premier high school players.
Now, just six games into her college career, she’s emerged as an early contender for national freshman of the year. She’s averaging 13.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game, all team highs, and has picked up two SEC Freshman of the Week honors already.
And she’ll be by far the biggest attraction of this Paradise Jam, roughly 1,500 miles from Columbia, where she’s already become a sensation. A year ago, she waited until her high school team traveled to a tournament in St. Thomas to announce her commitment, drawing a large crowd and even participating in service activities on the trip.
This time around, Staley said, she’ll be hosting a basketball clinic for young players on the island hoping to follow in her footsteps, just like she wanted to when she watched college teams come for the tournament when she was younger.
“We’re taking Aliyah home, home to play on the island that she grew up, the actual tournament that she grew up watching college teams come over and play. And now she gets to play in it herself, and it’s her freshman year. It’s a pretty cool thing,” Staley said. “Her parents and all the islanders are super excited to have her.”
“I’m really excited because I’m going to be able to play in front of people that I’ve grown up with and people that have seen me before I even started,” Boston said.
When the Gamecocks traveled to Ohio earlier this year, fellow freshman Zia Cooke had roughly 100 friends and family members drive from Toledo to Dayton to watch her play. Boston didn’t give an exact number when asked how many people will show up to support her.
“I would say a lot,” she said, laughing.
And Boston isn’t the only one getting a homecoming of sorts — senior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan has family from the U.S. Virgin Islands as well, and relatives of her mother know Boston’s relatives. While Herbert Harrigan’s family isn’t from St. Thomas, she said she still expects “a good bit” to show up and support her.
“It feels great, knowing that I’m going back home to the Caribbean,” Herbert Harrigan said.
But beyond the feel-good story of getting to see family members they rarely get the chance to see, these three games over three days won’t be easy for USC. No. 17 Indiana awaits the Gamecocks on Thanksgiving, followed by Washington State on Friday and No. 2 Baylor on Saturday.
Staley said she’s not worried about Boston losing focus for these matchups while she’s home.
“She’s locked in. She’s well beyond her years. I know she wants to go home, I know she wants to see her parents because she doesn’t seem them a whole, whole lot,” Staley said. “I know they want to see her, so we want them to enjoy that space, but she also knows the space of playing and competing and winning, and she prioritizes that to the highest degree.
“When I speak to Aliyah, I speak to the entire team, so I don’t really have to take her one on one to say, ‘Hey, this is a business trip.’ She already knows that.”
The game against Baylor in particular will carry plenty of weight — it will mark the first top-five matchup of the women’s basketball season. With Lady Bears star forward Lauren Cox sidelined indefinitely by a foot injury, Boston could play a huge role like she did in USC’s win over then-No. 6 Maryland.
But Staley warned against taking the Lady Bears lightly, with or without Cox.
“They’re Baylor, they’re a team in which they have a lot of great players, and they’ve been together. You lose Chloe Jackson, you lose Kalani Brown, and still you have a nucleus of players that’s able to play. They’re big-time players, they’re All-Americans, they are players that know how to play when the stage is set at the highest, and we’re not looking past anybody,” Staley said.
The Gamecocks are already very familiar with one of those players — guard Te’a Cooper transferred to BU after spending two seasons with USC.
NEXT
Who: No. 5 South Carolina (6-0) vs. No. 18 Indiana (4-0)
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Other matchups: USC vs. Washington State at 8 pm Friday; and USC vs. Baylor at 8 pm Saturday.
Where: Sports and Fitness Center, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Watch: Streaming on FloHoops.com (subscription required)
