Boston, No. 1 South Carolina top No. 2 Connecticut

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Aliyah Boston had 22 points and 15 rebounds and top-ranked South Carolina held No. 2 Connecticut to three points in the final 10 minutes of a 73-57 victory in the championship game of the inaugural Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Monday.

“Our players are determined. They are resilient,” said Dawn Staley, South Carolina’s Hall of Fame coach. “We knew exactly what we had to do especially on the defensive side of the ball. We had to disrupt. Uconn’s a team that’s a well-oiled machine. If you allow them to run their stuff, they’ve made teams look stupid. We had the personnel to disrupt and force them into contested shots.“

The Gamecocks (6-0) wouldn’t let the Huskies (3-1) beat them in the Bahamas, outscoring them 16-3 in the final quarter, setting off a postgame celebration that had South Carolina swaying alongside a Bahamian dance group.

Trailing 52-50 late in the third quarter, South Carolina cranked up its defense, holding Uconn without a field goal for 7:38 spanning the final two periods. By the time Evina Westbrook hit a 3-pointer from the wing with 5 minutes left — Uconn’s only points of the fourth — the Huskies trailed 63-57.

They got no closer. Destiny Littleton quickly answered with a 3 on the other end to restore the comfortable margin. She had hit a 3-pointer late in the third period to give the Gamecocks a 57-54 advantage after three quarters.

Paige Bueckers had 19 points to lead the Huskies, who had won nine of the 10 previous meetings between the schools.

Gonzaga, UCLA top latest AP poll

Gonzaga and UCLA continued their hold on the top two spots in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll, while Purdue and Duke barged their way into the top five.

The Bulldogs (4-0) received 55 first-place votes from the 61-person medial panel that regularly covers college basketball. The Bruins (4-0) received five firstplace votes.

Purdue received the only other first-place vote and leapfrogged Kansas into third in the Top 25.

The Jayhawks were fourth and Duke was fifth.

Defending national champion Baylor jumped to sixth place, followed by Villanova, Texas and Memphis.

Kentucky and Alabama tied for 10th followed by Houston, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, St. Bonaventure, Arizona and BYU.

Auburn and Michigan rounded out the top 20 with Seton Hall, Uconn, Florida, USC and Xavier completing the poll.