Analysis: How USC, Aliyah Boston overcame unusual foul trouble in win over Kentucky
South Carolina star freshman forward Aliyah Boston has put up big numbers in her first season of college basketball to push the Gamecocks to a No. 1 national ranking and SEC regular season title.
A key reason why she’s been so impactful is a relatively small number — 61. That’s the number of fouls Boston has been called for through 28 games.
Staying out of foul trouble has kept Boston on the floor, even as she plays a position where contact and whistles are common and swats a high number of blocked shots, a skill that usually comes with an increased risk of fouling. The two Gamecock greats Boston is often compared to, A’ja Wilson and Alaina Coates, both committed more fouls per 40 minutes as freshmen than Boston currently does.
Which made Sunday’s 67-58 win against Kentucky so unusual. For only the third time in conference play, Boston picked up three fouls and had to sit. All three of those whistles came quickly in the third quarter.
When Boston has missed time due to foul trouble, things have gone poorly for the Gamecocks. She fouled out in in November against Indiana — USC’s only loss of the year. Against Mississippi State, South Carolina was outscored by 10 points when Boston was off the floor with three fouls.
And Sunday against Kentucky, the Gamecocks performed better with Boston in the game, outscoring the Wildcats by 16 points with her playing. They were outscored by seven without her, including a third-quarter stretch when UK narrowed USC’s lead to single digits.
Coach Dawn Staley made a point to praise the bench players — junior Victaria Saxton and freshman Laeticia Amihere — who stepped up when Boston had to sit.
“We have players who sit on our bench and probably don’t play a whole lot of minutes because Aliyah is such an integral part of what we do on both sides of the ball,” Staley said. “It’s not that they’re not capable. Victaria’s very capable. We put Laeticia in at the last four minutes of the basketball game; she came in and gave us some great minutes, some great experience. So we don’t shy away from allowing our bench to perform.”
Neither Saxton nor Amihere scored, but they did collect seven combined rebounds and helped USC and fellow forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan dominate the paint, where the Gamecocks outscored the Wildcats 38-14 on the afternoon.
“That was part of our game plan, just pounding the paint,” senior guard Tyasha Harris said. “We recognized that from the first game that we contributed to that a lot. We had a lot of points off of the paint, and we wanted to stick with the same game plan.”
For Boston, sitting on bench after playing nearly the entire first half, there was some anxiety, Staley said. But the coach took that as an opportunity to teach her young star.
“Aliyah really takes it hard when she’s not playing her normal rotation,” Staley said. “And I just told her that, ‘You’ve carried us for a lot of games this season. A lot. Trust your teammates. Let them do what you’ve been doing for them all season long.’ And we got control of the game and we finished it.”
When do the Gamecocks play next?
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (27-1, 14-0 SEC) at Florida (14-12, 5-8 SEC)
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
Listen: 1320 AM/107.5 FM in Columbia area
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 1:48 PM.
