Aliyah Boston leads South Carolina past Louisville, 72-59, and into women’s title game

MINNEAPOLIS — The refrain repeated all season about the South Carolina Gamecocks proved true again in the Final Four.

They are just too good.

Led by star forward Aliyah Boston’s 23 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 assists, Dawn Staley’s team ground Louisville down all night and rolled on to Sunday’s championship game against UConn with a 72-59 win.

South Carolina jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, and while the Cardinals came in with no lack of confidence, it sure looked like there were some nerves on the court. Leading scorers Hailey Van Lith and Emily Engstler started a combined 0-for-5.

South Carolina’s defense certainly did its part, too, with three steals and two blocks in the first quarter, after which the Gamecocks led 17-10.

Louisville found its rhythm in the second quarter, with Engstler as the spark. The senior forward from Queens, N.Y., scored six straight points for the Cardinals, including two baskets in 16 seconds with a steal in between. That run gave Louisville its first lead of the night, and this game finally looked like the clash of No. 1 seeds that it was.

Van Lith still hadn’t scored, though, and didn’t until 1 minute, 43 seconds remained in the second quarter. Not only that, the layup she made was just her third field goal attempt of the night.

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That made it 30-28, and the many Louisville fans in the arena were on their feet. But South Carolina’s fans were louder, and their team was relentless. On the last play of the first half, the Cardinals triple-teamed Boston but she passed along the baseline to Brea Beal for a layup with three seconds to go. The Gamecocks took a 34-28 edge into the locker room.

“I could have called a timeout,” said the North Philly-bred Staley. “But when you know why it’s happening and you’ve got an experienced team like we have, we just let the game settle in and corrected it on the fly.”

Staley’s players are well-accustomed to winning big games with their defense when their offense sputters. But when the offense is clicking, you get this game’s third quarter. It didn’t matter that Louisville made nine of their 17 field goal attempts, because the Gamecocks shot 7-of-13 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line. Boston had 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block in just those 10 minutes.

The fourth quarter was even more dominant. South Carolina held Louisville to just 4-of-13 shooting, helped by Engstler fouling out mdiway through the period. Boston had seven more points and four rebounds, including a wide open three-pointer from the top of the arc with just over three minutes to go.

The die was cast, and the Gamecocks marched on to their first national title game in five years. They’ll play Connecticut in Sunday’s final (8 p.m., ESPN and ESPN+).

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Four other South Carolina players finished in double-figures in scoring: Beal (12 points, plus 2 blocks and 2 steals), Destanni Henderson (11 points and 4 assists), Zia Cooke (10 points) and Victaria Saxton (10).

Engstler was Louisville’s leader with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals. Olivia Cochran and Kianna Smith had 14 points each, and Van Lith had just nine points on 4-of-11 shooting.

South Carolina has been to the Final Four plenty often in Staley’s tenure – four times in the last eight seasons. But this will be just the Gamecocks’ second time in the title game. The first was in 2017, when they beat Mississippi State in the final. Last year, they lost in the national semifinals to eventual champion Stanford. When Boston was asked about that after the game, she didn’t hold back.

“This is the hump that we needed to get over,” she said. “And we got over that tonight, and we’re on to the national championship game. So we’re really excited.”