The University of South Carolina ended a five-year wait as they secured the NCAA title on Sunday night. Their triumph was largely down to their pivot, Aliyah Boston, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of March Madness.
Boston enjoyed a stunning tournament as she became only the second player in history to score 30 double-doubles in a season.
Aliyah Boston
The 20-year-old dominated the competition and demonstrated her physical prowess, which sets her apart as a unique player and suggests she will dominate US basketball for many years.
She finished the tournament averaging 16.8 points and 15.2 rebounds, and is the first player to achieve such scores in one season.
These numbers are no accident, but they are instead the result of her extraordinary dedication to the sport of basketball.
“I’ve been thinking about this since last season because everyone had a picture of me crying at the end of the Final Four, but today we’re national champions,” she said in an ESPN interview after the win.
“Happy tears. So if you guys want a smile, here you go. And we’re national champions!”
The Aliyah Boston story
Her love for the game began at the age of nine when she watched her sister Alexis play in a basketball game in Saint Thomas, the island in the Virgin Islands where they grew up.
She then began asking her sister for advice on how to play and, over time, she started to stand out, with a clear goal in her mind: achieving a scholarship to study in the United States.
At the age of 13, she decided to leave everything behind and travel with her sister to Massachusetts, before joining the Worcester Academy a year later.
Now, the life-changing decision that she took as an early teen has been rewarded, and her future looks extremely bright.
Marca
