Aliyah Boston feasts inside as Gamecocks take big road win over Arkansas
Aliyah Boston would be a “game-time decision” Thursday, Dawn Staley said.
The star freshman forward for South Carolina women’s basketball was dealing a lower leg injury and looking at potentially the first missed game of her career when the Gamecocks visited No. 25 Arkansas.
Instead, she played and once again dominated, powering No. 1 USC to a 86-65 win over the Razorbacks, the team’s 16th consecutive victory and eighth over a ranked opponent this season.
With 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and 15 rebounds, Boston came three blocks shy from a triple-double and was just as overwhelming as she was the first time the Razorbacks and Gamecocks met, when she had 19 points and 25 rebounds.
“Obviously you got a player,” Staley said of Boston in a postgame interview on the SEC Network. “You gotta play her both sides of the ball, you gotta box her out. She’s a pretty good rebounder. She’s just smart. She understands the game plan.”
Fellow forward Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan led all scorers with 25 points and added 9 rebounds, and freshman guard Zia Cooke joined them in double figures with 14 points, while senior guard Tyasha Harris contributed 9 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds.
Arkansas, a smaller team that starts a four-guard lineup, had simply no answer inside for Boston, Herbert Harrigan or the rest of South Carolina’s post players. And as it often has this season, USC came out swinging with a 9-0 burst to start the game, forcing Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors to call a timeout.
The stoppage gave Arkansas a moment to reset, and the Razorbacks came back to play the Gamecocks to a draw the rest of the quarter. Arkansas got going from 3-point range, making three of four attempts from long range to stay within single digits, and Boston left briefly and had a trainer look at one her legs.
But she quickly returned just before the end of the quarter, and USC carried that momentum over into the second, as Boston and Herbert Harrigan simply imposed their will in the paint and pushed the advantage to 17 points.
Arkansas’ lead scorer, guard Chelsea Dungee, started off the game 1-for-7 from the field after missing her first 11 shots in the teams’ first meeting. But just when it seemed that South Carolina would blow the game wide open, she woke up, scoring nine points in a row in the final few minutes before the half.
The Gamecocks were able to take a 46-33 lead into the break, though, after freshman Zia Cooke converted a three-point play with 30 seconds left to play. And once again, USC rode that momentum into the next quarter with an 8-2 run to start the third quarter, led by four more points from Boston.
“We had to dig deep to get this win. I thought our offense was pretty, pretty good at times, but what I’m really proud of is our defense, our ability to stay engaged for most of the game,” Staley said on the SEC Network.
From there, the lead stayed above 15 points the rest of the way, despite a somewhat sloppy fourth quarter that featured six Carolina turnovers.
And one
Unsurprisingly, second-chance points were in favor of South Carolina, who converted 19 offensive rebounds into 24 points.
Personal foul
For the first time all season, Herbert Harrigan allowed herself to be riled up by an opponent, getting tangled with Arkansas sophomore guard Rokia Doumbia and exchanging some words after the play that led to offsetting technical fouls.
Tip-in
Arkansas was 7-of-21 for 33% from 3-point range Thursday, well below its season averages of 9.8-of-26 for 37.7%.
When do the Gamecocks play next?
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (22-1, 10-0 SEC) vs. No. 4 UConn (19-2, 9-0 American)
When: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
Watch: ESPN2
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 10:12 PM.
