PARADISE ISLAND, the Bahamas– South Carolina’s 73-57 victory over Connecticut in the championship game of the inaugural women’s Battle for Atlantis was more than battle for superiority between the two top ranked teams in the AP poll.
The eight team tournament, put on by Lea Miller, was an huge advertisement for women’s basketball that should resonate throughout the country. Not only was it a matchup between two U.S. Olympic gold medal coaches Dawn Staley of South Carolina and Geno Auriemma of UConn. It was also a chance to get a close up look at the two players who are early favorites to win the AP, Wooden and Naismith awards– 6-4 junior forward Aliyah Boston of South Carolina and sophomore guard Paige Bueckers of the Huskies. The entertaining game, which started at 12 noon, was played before a spirited crowd in a converted ballroom at the Resort.
Bueckers, who took the country by storm last season when she won every major award as a freshman, established her brand midway through that special season when she scored a game high 31 points, including all of UConn’s nine points in overtime, to lead the second-ranked Huskies to a 63-59 victory over top-ranked South Carolina in Hartford.
This time, it was Boston who was the dominant force, scoring 22 points, grabbing 15 rebounds– the same total as UConn’s five starters had– and dominating the paint at both ends for the Gamecocks (4-0, who outrebounded the Huskies, 42-25, including a 19-6 advantage on the offensive glass. The Gamecocks outscored UConn, 17-2 on second chance points.
“It’s time for Aliyah Boston to be the dominant player she is,” Staley said.
Boston, who was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and moved to the U.S. at age 12 to pursue a basketball career at Worchester, Mass. Academy before becoming the cornerstone of South Carolina’s no. 1 recruiting class in 2019, seized the moment.
Staley has coached her share of dominant post players at South Carolina, including A’ja Wilson and Alana Coates as well as front court future Hall of Famers Brittany Griner. Wilson and Breanna Stewart in the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Boston, her latest protege, has been the dominant post player in college basketball the past three years. She came up huge as the Gamecocks neutralized Connecticut’s front court talent as South Carolina rallied from a 13 point first half deficit to outscore the Huskies 40–21 in the second half and limit UConn to just one field goal in the fourth quarter when they turned a competitive game into a convincing victory to solidify itself as No. 1 when the AP poll with 27 of 30 first place votes. UConn (3-1) dropped to sixth.
“We knew exactly what we had to do, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Staley said. “We had to disrupt. UConn is a well oiled machine, If you allow them to just run their stuff, they’ve made teams look stupid. We had the personnel to disrupt and force them into contested shots.”
This may be Staley’s best defensive team ever as evidenced by the fact they outscored UConn 16-3 in the final quarter, setting off a post game celebration that had South Carolina players swaying alongside a Bahamian dance group. Trailing 52-50 late in the third quarter, South Carolina cranked up its defense, holding the Huskies without a field goal for 738 spanning the final two periods. By the time Evina Westbrook hit a three pointer from the wing with 5 minutes to play– the Huskies were behind 63-57. . Destiny Littleton quickly answered with a three to shift the momentum back quickly. UConn never scored again, shooting just 1 for 10 for the quarter.
South Carolina dominated all aspects of the game, including backcourt play. where guards Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson combined for 32 points.
Bueckers showed some star power in the first half. She finished with 19 points and 5 assists but only had six in the second half and did not score in the fourth quarter when she committed three unforced turnovers. “I don’t think she was any good today, to be honest with you,” Auriemma said. “The first half, there were a lot of great moments she had. But for the entire second half, I don’t think she was much of a factor. i don’t know whether he just got tired, she was worn down. But it wasn’t the same Paige we’re used to seeing.
‘”Some of that comes from, we need another guard out there who can make outside shots. She just didn’t get enough help.”
Auriemma looked like he had found an answer in the semi-finals against 23d ranked South Florida when freshman Azzi Fudd scored 18 points on six threes. But Fudd only got 10 minutes and did not have a field goal against South Carolina, sitting most of the game because Auriemma thought she might be a defensive liability against a team that took the ball right at her..
South Carolina, which began the season as the No. 1 team, had been 0-4 in previous 1 x 2 games, with three of those losses to UConn. But the Huskies could not make a shot when the game on the line. “The combination of their defensive pressure in the fourth quarter and our inability to handle that pressure is basically the game,” Auriemma said. “‘For 30 minutes, i thought we were really good. The last 10 minutes, they were better than us — defensively, offensively, rebounding the ball They’re a better team than us right now. A little deeper.”.
The two teams will meet again in a rematch Jan. 27 in Columbia, S.C.
”The next four months, the team you saw today could be completely different,” Auriemma said. “that’s every coach’s hope and prayer. Our team can keep changing every week. Use every experience to build on. this team has got some work to do if that’s going to happen,”
