Aliyah Boston Sends Message To Sport with Missouri Performance
Through 18 games this past season, Aliyah Boston, South Carolina's superstar player who would go on to be named the National Player Of The Year and the National Defensive Player Of The Year, was averaging 17.3 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. In the Gamecocks' first 18 games they've played this season, Boston is averaging 12.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, which has lead to a bigger national conversation surrounding the player that's widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2023 WNBA draft later this spring.
This conversation, has mainly involved the question of why Aliyah Boston, who returned along with the majority of a South Carolina squad that won the national title last season, has seemingly struggled to produce at the levels she did just one year ago? The answer is a multifaceted one, yet also one that is quite simple when considering two different factors; the attention Boston draws from opponents and the emergence of other players on the team, particularly Zia Cooke, who's actually the Gamecocks current leading scorer as she's averaging 15.3 points per game.
Despite Boston, from a numbers perspective, having a bit of a "down year", she displayed to the sport of women's college basketball on Sunday afternoon why she's still the best at what she does. In just twenty minutes played, Boston scored 20 points, 8 of them which she got at the free throw line, and had 10 rebounds and 2 blocks to along with it, but it was Aliyah Boston did to get her final stat line that was the most impressive.
The Tigers of course double teamed and at times triple teamed the multi-time All-American, but Boston with her physicality and understanding of the importance of positioning was able to draw an absurd amount of off-ball fouls. She reeled in six offensive boards and scored multiple putbacks, at times drawing and-one opportunities at the charity stripe.
She also displayed her plus athleticism on the defensive end, coming up with seemingly the perfect answer for Missouri's driving guards time and time again, and essentially locking down the paint area for South Carolina. The takeaway, which is a dangerous one for any team in the sport of women's college basketball, is this: In order for the Gamecocks to win this season, they no longer need to completely rely on Aliyah Boston, so when she has this kind of output in March, it might not just be game over for the present opponent, but more so, for the entire field itself.
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