Aliyah Boston dominant again in win over LSU. How Gamecocks find success through her
No other team in the country has Aliyah Boston on its roster. After games like South Carolina women’s basketball’s 66-60 win over LSU in Baton Rouge on Thursday, Dawn Staley is grateful for that fact.
Boston, USC’s third-year forward, is putting together the kind of résumé that makes it tough to deny a National Player of the Year nod. She has posted eight consecutive double-doubles since Nov. 29, dominating in wins over ranked opponents such as Maryland, Duke, Stanford and LSU in that stretch.
The Gamecocks (14-1, 2-1 SEC) earned their first conference victory on the road Thursday night, working through Boston on the way to a win in a game where they trailed by 11 in the second quarter.
Boston scored 19 points and tallied 18 rebounds, just six shy of LSU’s total number of boards. Boston’s last offensive rebound, a grab off Victaria Saxton’s missed free throw with 0:11 to go, helped the Gamecocks keep LSU from narrowing their four-point lead late.
“(Boston) was everything for us,” Staley said after the game. “She scored. She rebounded the basketball. She played through fatigue, and she got beat up down there. She stood strong, and willed us to a win.”
South Carolina entered the Maravich Center to face Kim Mulkey’s first team at LSU (14-2, 2-1 SEC) on a 13-game win streak, and left with a win in front of a raucous crowd of nearly 10,000 people.
The Tigers shot 50% in the first half, including seven consecutive baskets to start the game, and were neutralized to 28.6% from the field in the third quarter and 40% in the fourth.
“(LSU gets) the shots that they want, and we just had to weather the storm,” Staley said. “For us, we found a way to win a basketball game being in a tough environment.”
Boston fell into early foul trouble in Baton Rouge and went to the bench after being called for her second personal with 7:16 to go in the second quarter. The Tigers went on the run that put them up by 11 points with 5:03 left in the second while Boston was out.
Mulkey said letting the lead be cut to six points before halftime without Boston on the floor, and allowing the Gamecocks to outscore LSU 19-10 in the third quarter, were turning points in the game’s outcome.
“Game was lost at the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter,” Mulkey said. “Boston’s in foul trouble, you go up 11, you have a couple empty possessions. ... You come out in the third quarter and have some empty possessions again. That’s kind of where it was lost as far as momentum.
“They didn’t do anything different. I think fatigue could have set in. They’re poised. They’ve played everybody in the country that they need to play to win a national championship, and they took LSU’s best shot tonight.”
Faustine Aifuwa, a fifth-year senior center for LSU, played a role in working to defend Boston. But as the trend goes, Boston proved tough to stop, and she led South Carolina to its 48-24 advantage on the glass.
Aifuwa credited the rebounding margin as one of the matchup’s most pivotal factors.
“Just guarding Aliyah, she’s a great player,” Aifuwa said. “Rebounding, that was our biggest thing. We just kind of fell short on that. It’s just something we have to work on.”
In its comeback wins, which South Carolina has put together multiple times throughout the 2021-22 season, two factors are typically true: Boston is a dominant force, and the Gamecocks dominate the glass. That recipe is proving to be a tough one for opposing teams to overcome.
Next South Carolina women’s basketball game
Who: No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks (14-1, 2-1 SEC) vs. No. 21 Kentucky Wildcats (8-3, 1-0 SEC)
Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Watch: ESPN
