Hey, Aliyah, go be dominant: How Gamecocks star led USC to Elite Eight
Aliyah Boston had dominance on her mind.
As top-seed South Carolina’s shooting woes resurfaced in the fourth quarter of a Sweet 16 NCAA tournament game against No. 5 North Carolina, the Tar Heels’ offense grew hotter.
Shooting 50% from the field in the final period, UNC brought the game within four points with 2:02 to go. The Gamecocks shot 21% in the same frame, but Boston stood as the lone Gamecock with offensive power in the final 10 minutes.
The 6-foot-5 forward scored all 13 of South Carolina’s fourth-quarter points in her 28-point, 22-rebound night, leading South Carolina to its 69-61 win over UNC on Friday in Greensboro.
“In this game, I think a lot of it just went to slowing down and being patient,” Boston said. “We worked on that over the past couple of practices, me reading the defense. Once I did that, I just went to score.”
Boston went 8 of 13 from the field and 12 of 13 from the free-throw line.
In the first 20-20 game of her career, Boston became the first player in either men’s or women’s basketball to have more than 25 points, more than 20 rebounds and shoot better than 90% at the foul line since the 1972 Final Four, when UCLA’s Bill Walton accomplished the feat against Louisville, according to Stats Perform.
For North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart, Boston’s dominance was unsurprising, frustrating and “a thing of beauty” all at once.
“She’s just a premier player,” Banghart said. “She’s generational in that way, with how her body has transformed. She’s powerful and strong. She has kind of dancer footwork. She’s relentless.”
Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley said practice time had been spent preparing for UNC by crowding Boston’s space in the paint.
Staley said they rushed Boston defensively in practice to replicate what teams like 16-seed Howard and No. 8 Miami had done against her in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. She was limited to 10 points and 16 rebounds against Miami and 10 points with 12 rebounds against Howard.
Boston’s effort to learn from those games influenced her fourth-quarter focus against the Tar Heels.
“I thought she was just calm, just trying to be patient out there, not to play as fast as she was playing in the Miami game,” Staley said. “I thought she did a good job of executing on gameday.”
Senior forward Victaria Saxton said the Gamecocks came together in the fourth quarter to tell Boston she needed to go be dominant. Junior guard Zia Cooke said Boston’s calmness spreads across the team.
As Boston tallied her 27th straight double-double Friday, the success she saw was a continuation of the dominance she’d shown all season. Against UNC, Boston’s power was the key piece in South Carolina’s push to the Elite Eight.
“I thought she played like the national Player of the Year,” Staley said. “That’s what you do. When the game is on the line, you give them the ball, and they perform. She’s been that for us all season long, but she showed up on the biggest stage in the biggest game. This is the biggest game that we have in front of us, and she delivered.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 11:04 PM.
