South Carolina continues defense against Maryland
Aliyah Boston has played her share of All-Americans this season and each time, she and South Carolina have always ended up victorious.
Facing Maryland's Diamond Miller, a second-team AP All-American, is nothing more than the next step of a journey focused on success.
“I take it as another game,” Boston, a three-time first-team All-American, said Sunday, “just the opposing five players that we have to play against.”
The top-seeded undefeated Gamecocks (35-0) face the Terrapins (28-6) today at 4 p.m. in the Greenville 1 Regional for a trip to the Final Four in Dallas next week. It's a rematch of a game at Maryland last November where South Carolina throttled the home team, 81-56.
The Terps were without Miller, the 6-foot-3 senior who leads the team with an average of 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds this season.
“I'm not sure at that point of the season whether we would have had Diamond, it would have made a difference,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.
Miller has missed the past two games against South Carolina in 2021 and 2022 because of injury. Her lone appearance came in November 2019 when she and Boston were both freshmen.
Boston had 14 points and seven rebounds in the Gamecocks' 63-54 win while Miller finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
Boston has been as steady in her approach since she first stepped on the court at South Carolina. There were moments when coach Dawn Staley had to tweak and shape Boston's practice habits early on, guidance the young player took to heart and improved.
With Boston a senior who swept the major national awards last season, Staley said her centerpiece performer is solely focused on the wins.
“She doesn't care about stats. She doesn't care about double doubles. She just wants to win,” Staley said. “I think she wants to go out as winners with her team. Like that is it.”
Boston has taken on her share of talented players this season. She had 14 points and 13 rebounds in a 76-71 overtime win at Stanford in November to overcome Cardinal star Cameron Brink's 25 points.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Boston and the Gamecocks put away LSU and first-team All-American Angel Reese, 88-64. Boston had 14 points and nine rebounds while Reese's streak of 23 double doubles to start the season ended as she had 16 points and four rebounds.
Miller was disappointed she couldn't play the past two against South Carolina and is simply excited to get another chance at Boston and the defending national champions.
“Aliyah is a great player,” Miller said. “They have a lot of great players, and our class of 2019 is really thriving right now. It's going to be fun.”
Seattle 3 Regional
Once the brackets were released, a showcase featuring two of the biggest powerhouse names in women's college basketball seemed inevitable.
And then Virginia Tech and Ohio State went and kicked aside the nostalgic hopes of a possible UConn and Tennessee showdown with a Final Four berth on the line.
Instead, it will be the topseeded Hokies (30-4) and the No. 3 seed Buckeyes (287) meeting tonight at 6 in the Seattle 3 Regional final and the last spot in Dallas on the line.
And it'll provide another fresh face to the Final Four landscape. Ohio State hasn't reached a Final Four since 1993, its only appearance in school history. Virginia Tech had never even reached the Elite Eight before Saturday night's win over Tennessee.
“I think that's the beauty because these kids have dreamed — they didn't dream of playing for Tennessee or UConn. They dreamed of getting to the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and now they're accomplishing those goals,” Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said. “And I want them to relish in it. I want them to understand what they have accomplished for Virginia Tech.”
While it was easy to dream at the potential of another UConn-Tennessee matchup after the tournament field was unveiled, Virginia Tech was the No. 1 seed in the region for good reason. The Hokies' 73-64 win over the Lady Vols in the Sweet 16 was their 14th straight win.
The previous time Virginia Tech suffered a setback was Jan. 26 at Duke. Two months later, there hasn't been another blemish and only one of those 14 wins has been by fewer than eight points.
“I think the end of our season that we had kind of prepared us for this,” Virginia Tech guard Georgia Amoore said. “We played a bunch of talented teams back-to-backto-back. I think it tested us a lot. We came out with wins, but we definitely learned a lot from that final season stretch.”
For Ohio State, getting to a regional final is an accomplishment, but also the Buckeyes are finally meeting their lofty expectations. Prior to this season, Ohio State had been a top-3 seed in the tournament six times and failed to reach the Elite Eight.