Aliyah Boston makes SEC history as Gamecocks crush Texas A&M. What we learned
No. 1 South Carolina women’s basketball entered Reed Arena in College Station, Texas on an emotional night for Gary Blair’s Texas A&M in the final home game for the Aggies’ head coach. Unfazed by the environment, the Gamecocks left with an 89-48 win in another dominant night of SEC play.
South Carolina (26-1, 14-1 SEC) tallied its 14th straight win in conference play Thursday in a fourth-straight double-digit victory. Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, which already clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming SEC tournament, claimed the regular-season championship outright with the win over Texas A&M (14-13, 4-11 SEC).
Staley said that Thursday night’s game was one of South Carolina’s most complete efforts all year.
“We didn’t have lapses on either side of the basketball,” she said. “If we turned it over, we corrected it. Turnovers came few and far between. I thought we were locked in defensively, we made it hard for them to score. We made it difficult for them to get rebounds because we were so efficient. We pushed the ball, we played in half court, so it was a number of things that we did extremely well.”
The Gamecocks outperformed the Aggies in all facets, shooting 53% from the field compared with Texas A&M’s 30% and out-rebounding the Aggies 49 to 31. South Carolina star forward Aliyah Boston led all scorers with 18 points as she tallied her 20th straight double-double. Destanni Henderson scored 17 on 8 of 11 shooting. Jordan Nixon led Texas A&M with 11 points.
Here’s what we learned about the Gamecocks.
USC claims SEC regular-season championship outright
South Carolina earned at least a share of the SEC regular-season title with its win over Tennessee on Sunday, but the Gamecocks clinched the title for themselves with the win over Texas A&M.
The Gamecocks earned their sixth SEC regular-season crown in the past nine years and head into next week’s SEC tournament with the No. 1 seed.
South Carolina has one regular season game remaining before the tournament, traveling to Ole Miss on Sunday. The Gamecocks have dropped just one game in the 2021-22 season, their SEC opener at Missouri, totaling 11 wins over ranked opponents.
“We want to win the SEC outright,” Staley said. “I thought our players have been preparing extremely well for the opportunity to win it outright. ... I want this team to get everything that they deserve, everything that they worked for, everything that they earned. This is one of the things that we wanted to do.”
Aliyah Boston sets SEC record
South Carolina star forward Aliyah Boston made history Thursday, eclipsing the conference record in consecutive double-doubles.
Boston tallied her 20th straight double-double at Texas A&M, totaling 16 points and 10 rebounds with 1:22 to go in the third quarter. She surpassed the record set by LSU’s Sylvia Fowles, who totaled 19 straight double-doubles with the Tigers.
Boston headed to the bench after shooting a pair of free throws with 1:22 left in the third quarter. She finished the night with 18 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 29 minutes.
“This league puts you in a position to do some historical things, and that’s exactly what it did for Aliyah,” Staley said. “I’m so happy for her. She etches her name in history, but I know she would deflect and give credit to our teammates.”
Boston, on a campaign for national Player of the Year, entered Thursday’s game averaging 16.7 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.
Gamecocks’ depth on full display
Staley began rotating in USC’s bench players early in College Station, with multiple reserves seeing early and productive minutes against the Aggies.
Staley said seeing the reserves play well — and limiting the starters’ minutes — has been “comforting,” especially in back-to-back road trips like the current stretch. The Gamecocks play at Ole Miss on Sunday after Thursday’s trip to Texas A&M.
“It’s great to have (the starters) play half of the game and knowing that when our second and third units got in, they elevated,” Staley said. “We didn’t lose a quarter. We didn’t turn the ball over. We shot the ball pretty efficiently. We rebounded the basketball.
“That was player one through 15. All the eligible players came in and elevated our play, so it was a beautiful thing to witness.”
The Gamecocks’ bench scored 17 points in the first half, led by veteran LeLe Grissett’s seven points. Grissett finished the game in double figures, scoring 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting. South Carolina finished with 42 points from its bench.
Freshman Bree Hall played 10 minutes across the first two quarters — the most of any bench player in the first half — and finished the game with six points and four rebounds.
Next South Carolina women’s basketball game
Who: No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks (26-1, 14-1 SEC) vs. Ole Miss Rebels (22-6, 10-5 SEC)
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.
Watch: SEC Network
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 10:23 PM.
