The top two ranked teams in NCAA Women’s College Basketball will face off tomorrow for the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship after Virgin Islander Aliyah Boston (5-0) scored 16 points on Sunday to help No. 1 South Carolina defeat No. 9 Oregon 80-63.
The Gamecocks will face No. 2 UConn after they also won their first two games of the tournament on Monday at 1 p.m. AST on ESPN.
Boston made seven of her twelve shots, including a three pointer, in her 16 point performance. She also had eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in the victory.
South Carolina outscored Oregon 27-14 in the first quarter and never let Oregon get too close the rest of the way.
Oregon trimmed the deficit to nine points in the second quarter with about five minutes remaining. After Oregon’s Chanaya Pinto made a three pointer that made the score 32-23 with 5:21 left in the first half, South Carolina outscored Oregon 12-3 the rest of the first half and led 44-26 at halftime.
South Carolina kept their distance from Oregon in the second half and never allowed them to get the margin between the sides in single digits.
Zia Cooke led South Carolina in scoring with 20 points and Laeticia Amihere had 18 points in the victory.
South Carolina defeated Buffalo 88-60 in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship in a game where Boston scored 23 points. South Carolina’s two wins in the tournament coupled with UConn’s wins over Minnesota (88-58) and South Florida (60-53) in their first two games of the tournament sets up the top ranked match-up.
UConn and South Carolina have faced off in every year of Boston’s time at South Carolina. In her freshman season South Carolina won the match up 70-52. Last season, UConn took home the victory 63-59 in overtime.
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