South Carolina dominated Kansas State inside for a 65-44 win.
South Carolina was without starting point guard Destanni Henderson, who sat out the game with a left leg injury. With freshman Raven Johnson out for the year with a knee injury, 6-4 Laeticia Amihere, normally the backup power forward, was the next point guard up.
Nobody will confuse Amihere for Henderson, but she was a more than capable fill in. South Carolina started slowly on the offensive end, but Amihere’s length on defense helped buy the Gamecocks time to find their groove on the other end. And Amihere understood the most important part of being a point guard for South Carolina: get the ball to Aliyah Boston.
Boston wasn’t perfect like she was against North Carolina A&T, when she went 13-13 from the field: she only made nine of her eleven shots.
The matchup between Boston and Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee, who is third in the nation in scoring (24.4) and ninth in rebounding (11.6) and the leader in blocked shots (4.8), never really materialized. South Carolina went to Boston on its second possession. She missed a hook over Lee, but got the rebound and scored. It was that way all night. Boston got Lee to bite on her first move and then scored on the second.
Boston had a double-double midway through the second quarter and finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds, four blocks, and three assists, all in just 26 minutes. In her two games this week, Boston is averaging 25.0 points, 15.5 rebounds, 3.5 blocks, and 1.5 assists. She shot 22-24 from the floor and has not had a single turnover. It’s a two week stretch, going back to her 22-point, 15-rebound game against UConn that has Boston squarely in the mix as the best player in the country.
“She’s right there,” said Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie. “This is a complete basketball player. I think it will shake out at the end of the year who the best player in the country is, but she’s in the conversation.”
Lee got into early foul trouble trying to guard Boston and had to sit after picking up her third with 6: 25 left in the second quarter. She picked up her fourth ninety seconds into the third quarter and by the time she returned the game was over. Lee scored eight of her 14 points in the fourth quarter and had six rebounds and three blocks. Mittie said the early foul trouble pretty much doomed the Wildcats.
“We’ve got to do a better job of protecting her,” he said. “She is such a factor for us. We need her on the floor for thirty-plus minutes, particularly when you’re playing the number one team in the country.”
For three years the Gamecocks have tried to figure out the best way to utilize Amihere, and it turns out she may have been a point guard all along. Amihere finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and five blocks in 27 minutes. She was a mismatch for the Wildcats on both ends of the court, and she looked calm and confident.
“I thought LA played great, I don’t think we could have asked her to play any better. She had poise, she had the pulse of the game.”
“That’s good recruiting by Dawn when that’s your dropoff. That’s a hell of a deal,” Mittie said. “Laeticia is a great player and she was really pressing the issue in transition.”
More importantly, for a player that has turned the ball over in bunches in her career, Amihere had just one turnover (it came three minutes into the game and she didn’t have another one for the next 24 minutes).
“I think I did well pushing the ball. I think that’s one of my strong suits,” Amihere said. “It’s my first time starting as point guard and there's some things to work on.”
She credited her time with Team Canada for preparing her for the role.
“I learned it from Canada basketball really,” she said. “One of the things that we harp so much on back in Canada is learning the game and basketball IQ.”
Kamilla Cardoso added 11 points and ten rebounds in a season-high 25 minutes. She also had four blocks and helped wear down Lee. South Carolina finished the game with a 52-34 rebounding advantage, including 19 second chance points. They outscored Kansas State 38-18 in the paint and shot 27 free throws. South Carolina blocked a season-high 16 shots and Kansas State was just 4-20 on layups.
Notes:
Henderson had only missed two games in her career, against Mississippi State and Kentucky in January of her freshman season. She had appeared in 85 consecutive games. … Amihere was a fill-in starter last season when Victaria Saxton missed practice due to a death in the family. … After going a perfect 13-13 against North Carolina A&T, Boston missed her first shot attempt. She got the offensive rebound and scored. … Kansas State’s second-leading scorer, Serena Sundell, also got into foul trouble and had just six points and two assists. … Zia Cooke missed her first eight shots before hitting a three. She finished with just six points. … South Carolina had a season-high 16 blocked shots, one short of the school record. … South Carolina was just 13-27 from the line. … Kansas State finished the game on an 8-0 run after South Carolina emptied the bench. … Announced attendance was over 11,657. ... South Carolina is off for exams next week and then plays Maryland on December 12.
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