Battle of the bigs: No. 1 Gamecocks, Aliyah Boston set for major test vs. NC State
Come Thursday night, star South Carolina women’s basketball player Aliyah Boston will face one of her tallest tasks of the year in the paint.
With the No. 1 Gamecocks set to host No. 8 North Carolina State, Boston will be going up against one of the few players in the country even close to her combination of size and height: junior forward Elissa Cunane.
Boston and Cunane both measure 6-foot-5, boast impressive wingspans and dominate in the low post in the mold of old-school centers. Both were voted All-Americans last season and both were finalists for the Lisa Leslie Award, given to the nation’s best center — Boston won it.
Thursday’s game will be the first matchup between the two talented post players and the first between the two programs since 2011. Who gets the best of that head-to-head could go a long way in determining the winner of the first top-10 matchup in the country this season.
“I told (the players) if Cunane is able to play her per-average minutes, you know, we’re in trouble,” USC coach Dawn Staley said. “We got to figure out how to limit her minutes and limit her touches and limit her production. And the way we do that is, I’m sure she’s gonna guard Aliyah at some point. We got to make that work for us.”
Improving Boston’s production has also been a key focus in practice as of late, Staley said. A preseason contender for national player of the year honors, Boston is averaging 11 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in the early part of the season. Against two solid opponents this past weekend in South Dakota, she didn’t quite play to her own high standards, Staley said. After shooting 60.8% from the field field last year, she’s at 50% through three games, 42.1% in the last two games.
Part of that, Staley suggested, is because teams are now keying in on her after she exploded onto the scene as a freshman. The “novelty” of Boston has worn off, Staley said, and teams are now looking to limit her touches just like the Gamecocks are looking to limit Cunane. At the same time, don’t expect South Carolina to stop feeding her.
“I mean, we have to do a better job of getting her the ball,” Staley said. “And it’s pointed out to our four players that are on the floor with her, because obviously she’s open, but we’re not doing a great job at looking for her and looking at her. So that’s on us as coaches to make sure that when she’s open, we need to make a concerted effort to give her the ball.”
The question of how long either Boston or Cunane can stay on the floor Thursday will loom large. Because they’re both physical players playing in a crowded area of the court, foul trouble is a constant concern. Boston had to sit out large chunks of the first half in USC’s last two games after picking up two early fouls, while Cunane had four or more fouls seven times last season.
“Strategically, we just try to have Aliyah stay as big as possible and not reach in when she’s not supposed to reach in,” Staley said. “I think what helps Aliyah is for her not to pick up a foul early in the first quarter. I think that really helps her psyche out, and it really helps my psyche out because then I’m juggling whether or not she can be disciplined enough to, you know, fight the urge to fight back when people retaliate or whatever it is.
“She’s still very young, you know, she’s a sophomore, she’s played a lot of minutes for us. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time I think she’s a little frustrated now because she hasn’t played up to par. So you just don’t want her reaching in that bag of frustration and putting herself in foul trouble. That will hurt our team because we don’t want to sub because of foul trouble. We want to sub because of exhaustion.”
The Boston-Cunane matchup will likely draw much of the attention on Thursday’s ESPN2 broadcast, but Staley also praised N.C. State as a balanced team with 3-point shooting and “gears” to its intensity. It’s a tendency she’s noticed in her own team as well this past weekend.
“I like the fact that they have another level to them, another gear on the court, but also another level as far as focus,” Staley said of South Carolina. “You want them always focused for games. But some games, you need a little bit more focus on the details because you know that the details will be the difference maker of winning and losing.”
NEXT GAME
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (3-0) vs. No. 8 North Carolina State (2-0)
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
Watch: ESPN2
