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Virgin Islander Aliyah Boston and No. 1 ranked South Carolina will begin a difficult stretch of games against three straight ranked opponents on Sunday on ESPN before they begin the Southeastern Conference portion of their regular season schedule.
The Gamecocks will play No. 8 Maryland on Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN, No. 19 Duke on Dec. 15th at 8 p.m. on the ACC Network, and No. 4 Stanford on Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 as they put their perfect 9-0 record on the line over a strenuous stretch of national televised match ups.
South Carolina will seek revenge against Stanford, which defeated South Carolina in the national semifinals last year.
South Carolina already has three wins against the top 10 opponents this season as they have defeated North Carolina State when they were ranked No. 5, Oregon when they were ranked No. 9, and UConn when they were ranked No. 2. The wins against Oregon and UConn were during their Battle 4 Atlantis Championship winning run.
In those ranked matchups this year, Boston is averaging 15.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game.
Boston is coming off one of the best two game stretches of her career and in the last 20 years of college basketball. In the team’s win against North Carolina A&T, Boston scored a career-high 29 points, had 14 rebounds and made all 13 of her shot attempts. In South Carolina’s victory over Kansas State, Boston scored 21 points, had 17 rebounds and made 9 of 11 shot attempts.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Boston is the first D-I player over the last 20 seasons to average 25 PPG, 15 RPG on 90 percent shooting in two consecutive games.
Her 13 shots without a miss in a game is a school record and she was three field goals shy of the NCAA record for made field goals without a miss in a game.
So far this season Boston is averaging 16.8 points, 9 rebounds and 2.6 blocked shots per game.
Boston was named to three national player of the season watch lists for the 2021-2022 season, the Naismith Trophy, The Wade Trophy and the Wooden Award.
Boston was also named a preseason All-American by the Associated Press and USA Today.
Additionally, she was named to the Lisa Leslie Award watchlist, an award she won in her first two seasons in college basketball, which is presented to the best center in women’s college basketball. She is the only player to receive this award twice in the four years it has been presented.
During her sophomore campaign, Boston was a finalist for the Naismith Award, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, and the Athletic's Women’s Basketball player of the year.
In her first two seasons, she averaged a double double with career averages of 13.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. She was fifth in the country in double-doubles last season with 17.
