San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Stanford’s Jones, South Carolina’s Boston friends, rivals
When Stanford won the NCAA women’s basketball title in 2021, COVID restrictions made it nearly impossible to interact outside of team bubbles.
Stanford’s Haley Jones found Aliyah Boston at the end anyway.
After Boston’s potential game-winning tip-in hit metal instead of net, and her South Carolina squad fell to the Cardinal in the Final Four, Jones and Fran Belibi, longtime friends, managed to get across the court to hug Boston.
“I think us being so close really boosted our competitiveness against each other,” Jones had said after that game in April 2021. “So, I mean, it was a hardfought battle. She played great. We both played great. So we just wanted to pay her the respect that she deserves.”
The future faces of women’s
college basketball might be UConn’s injured Paige Bueckers or Iowa’s sharpshooting Caitlin Clark, but the frontwomen of the sport right now are Jones and Boston, and their connection runs deeper than their college teams.
Both have titles now; after Stanford’s 66-65 win in 2021 over the Gamecocks, the Cardinal beat Arizona for their first title in 29 years, led by Jones. Last season, South Carolina defeated UConn, the team that had knocked Stanford off to prevent the rematch.
As their careers have paralleled, Boston and Jones and Belibi have relished the rarity of such a collective experience of facing the pressures of being not only one of the top players in the sport, but one of the faces of it.
“It feels like we’re in the same boat,” Boston said in a phone interview with the Chronicle. “We’re on watch lists, or being nominated for something, and I’m so excited for them and for me, and it’s like God has blessed us. … I love that we’ve never stopped being friends.”
Boston and Jones are widely regarded to be the best two players in the country, and when they play on Sunday, their South Carolina and Stanford teams are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, respectively.
Their friendship bloomed long before they faced off in the Final Four.
“We just developed this bond,” said Boston. “We got attached quickly, and we’ve been
friends ever since.”
The two have always been separated geographically; Jones played her high school basketball at Mitty in San Jose, and Boston in Massachusetts after coming from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In 2017, as 15-year-olds, USA Basketball invited them to the FIBA Under-16 World Cup. Belibi and Boston played, and Jones was an alternate. They all went to Belarus for the Under-17 World Cup, and found an instant connection.
“I think our relationship leads to a lot of competitive juices between the two of us,” Jones said. “But it’s also really cool just having another great friend who is going through what I’m going through across the country.”
While Boston dominates in
the paint, Jones facilitates along the perimeter for the Cardinal as a guard. They don’t match up with each other even while they are both on the floor at the same time.
Stanford and South Carolina have met just twice over their careers.
In the Final Four game, Boston owned the boards with 16 rebounds and four blocks, while Jones scored 24 points, and her jumper on the final Cardinal possession earned them the win. A year ago, the Gamecocks topped Stanford 65-61 in Columbia.
Outside of those rare meetings, Jones and Boston are usually thousands of miles apart.
“We’re both doing different things, but also have a lot of the same struggles,” Jones said. “It’s really nice having someone to confide in, but also you don’t see them every day. It’s a different type of relationship to have.”
Boston said she FaceTimed with Jones on Tuesday night, before the Gamecocks had traveled for their Thursday contest against Clemson, where they earned their third win. They try to keep in touch during the season, though they are both plenty busy guiding their respective teams.
On the court, the friendliness doesn’t all fade during the game.
“It’s always intense when we play,” Boston said. “We always find a way to have a chat and ask each other how we’re doing, but it’s always such a great matchup.”
Sunday’s game will be potentially the last time Jones and Belibi face Boston in their collegiate careers. Like Jones, Belibi is a senior, a part of the coachesdubbed “funky four” group that includes Ashten Prechtel and Hannah Jump.
The Cardinal are a little different this time against their rival,
but one thing that hasn’t changed is their top players.
“We played very well (against South Carolina last year), but we had a whole different team,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I think it should give people confidence. We did very well there, but we’re going to have to play better than we did” Wednesday, in an 80-43 home win over Cal Poly.
While Stanford has defeated five unranked opponents by a scoring margin of more than 45, the Gamecocks have already been tested by Maryland, albeit without the Terrapins’ top player, Diamond Miller. South Carolina is averaging 89 points per game, just a hair behind the seventh-ranked Stanford offense at 91 points.
The Gamecocks lead the nation with 9.7 blocks per game, making for an intriguing matchup against the big Cardinal lineup that has done so well to generate points in the paint.
The Cardinal have thrived off depth with around half their points each game coming from the bench, and at least 14 players entering each contest. It will be a tighter matchup against South Carolina, with a focus on shutting down its starters.
Boston is expected to be the first overall WNBA draft pick, after the Indiana Fever won the lottery. Jones is projected to go second or third.
Before that, another chapter in one of the women’s game’s most riveting rivalries that has grown around the best two players in the country.
“How often do you get to watch No. 1 (against) No. 2 this early in the season?” Jones said. “All of this is exciting for women’s basketball.”