South Carolina Basketball: Aliyah Boston receives high rookie honor

Aliyah Boston is good at basketball, in case you haven’t heard. Dawn Staley’s South Carolina basketball program has put out a number of big-time WNBA players, and Boston might be the second-best of the bunch already (behind reigning MVP Aja Wilson).

Boston put up an elite rookie season.

The 6’5″ Virgin Islands native led the WNBA in field goal percentage (57.8%), finished 9th in overall rebounding, 2nd in offensive rebounding, 11th in steals, and 9th in blocks while putting up one of the most well-rounded stat lines in the league. For the 2023 campaign, Aliyah Boston averaged 14.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game.

She also set several rookie records along the way. No rookie ever began her career with three straight games of double-digit scoring and 50% or better shooting from the field. Boston did it four times. No rookie had ever had a stretch of four games in a row with at least 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 50% shooting. Boston tied the record of three games twice before setting a new mark of five straight contests with the numbers.

The in-season accolades came as well. Aliyah Boston won three WNBA Rookie of the Month honors (just the eighth rookie to win the honor three times) and one WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week award.

Now, as many have expected, the yearly awards have begun.

This week, it was announced that Aliyah Boston was the Associated Press’ WNBA Rookie of the Year. She was also selected to the AP’s WNBA All-Rookie Team. Boston’s teammate with the Indiana Fever Grace Berger also made the AP WNBA All-Rookie Team.

Fellow South Carolina basketball legend Aja Wilson was named the AP’s WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and finished second in the publication’s Player of the Year voting. She was also included on the AP’s first-team All-WNBA squad.