The Daily Gamecock

Aliyah Boston enters 2023 WNBA Draft

<p>FILE—Senior forward Aliyah Boston drives towards the basket in a game against Arkansas on Jan. 22, 2023. Boston declared for the WNBA draft shortly after the Gamecocks' lost to Iowa in the Final Four game on March 31, 2023.</p>
FILE—Senior forward Aliyah Boston drives towards the basket in a game against Arkansas on Jan. 22, 2023. Boston declared for the WNBA draft shortly after the Gamecocks' lost to Iowa in the Final Four game on March 31, 2023.

Less than a day after the South Carolina women's basketball team fell to Iowa in the Final Four, senior forward Aliyah Boston announced her intention to enter the 2023 WNBA Draft in a statement posted to Twitter.

"When I first arrived on campus on that warm day in May of 2019, I had no idea what to expect as a 17 year old," Boston said in the statement. "Four years later, I can honestly say this was the best, first decision of my life."

Boston started all 138 games she played for the Gamecocks and helped lead the team to three consecutive Final Four appearances between 2021 and 2023. 

In addition to sweeping the 2022 women's college basketball player of the year honors, Boston won awards every year she was on campus. Among her accolades, Boston is the two-time reigning SEC Player of the Year, four-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year, four-time winner of the Lisa Leslie Award and the 2022 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

In four years at South Carolina, Boston averaged 14.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. In January she set the program record with her 73rd career double-double, and she finished her college career with 82 total double-doubles.

The No. 3 high school recruit in 2019, Boston was one of the five "Freshies" on the team, along with guard Zia Cooke, forward Laeticia Amihere, guard Brea Beal and guard Olivia Thompson. Despite the NCAA Tournament being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the group won 131 games together and lost just once at Colonial Life Arena.

Boston is expected to be the top pick by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft, which will be held on April 10 at 7 p.m.


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