COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina women’s basketball coach head coach Dawn Staley has been named the SEC Coach of the Year and junior forward Aliyah Boston is the conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year according to voting by the league coaches.
Staley led her team to its sixth SEC Regular-Season Championship overall and its second in the last three seasons. The Gamecocks are currently 27-1 overall with 11 wins over ranked opponents which leads the nation and the Gamecocks are just the second SEC team in league history to win its first 11 games against a ranked opponent. The national polls have been dominated by South Carolina who has been ranked No. 1 in both national polls every week of the season.
Boston is the third Gamecock to earn SEC Player of the Year honors and she is just the fifth player in program history to record 1,000 rebounds, hitting that mark in the regular-season finale at Ole Miss on Sunday. She hit the 1,000-point plateau earlier this season against Maryland (Dec. 12).
Boston is averaging 16.8 points per game and 11.9 rebounds per game and she is coming off another double-double, her SEC record 21st consecutive double-double.
In addition to ranking 10th in the nation in blocks per game (2.7) and seventh in defensive rebounds per game (8.2), she is second in double-doubles (22), sixth in rebounds per game (11.9), 27th in offensive rebounds per game (3.8) and 29th in field goal percentage (.544).
Boston was joined on the All-SEC First Team by teammate Destanni Henderson. Zia Cooke was named to the second team.
Henderson earned All-SEC honors for the first time since being named to the 2019 All-Freshman Team. The Gamecocks’ most accurate 3-point shooter at 40.0 percent (36-of-90), she is second on the team in scoring at 11.7 points per game and is seventh in the SEC with 4.3 assists per game. Cooke averages 11.5 points on the season and is tied for second in assists.
Carolina opens play in the SEC Tournament in Nashville this weekend, facing either eighth-seeded Arkansas or ninth-seeded Missouri in Friday’s quarterfinal game which tips off at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.