Despite successful Thanksgiving weekends for South Carolina and Indiana on the court, both top-five teams dealt with injury scares to their top players.
Against Hampton on Sunday, Aliyah Boston appeared to injure her right ankle with under a minute left in the second quarter. The Gamecocks comfortably won 85-38, but Boston’s status for Tuesday’s showdown with No. 15 UCLA is uncertain.
Per Jeremiah Holloway, who covers USC for The State, Boston will be a game-time decision. She did not fully participate in practice on Monday, but she was not wearing the boot that she had on after leaving Sunday’s game.
In a TV interview with WLTX, head coach Dawn Staley turned to ask Boston if she was playing on Tuesday. She responded with a smile.
The presumptive top 2023 WNBA Draft pick is averaging 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game so far this season.
South Carolina’s win on Sunday pushed the No. 1 team in the country to 6-0, including wins over then —No. 17 Maryland and No. 2 Stanford.
The Hoosiers, who were bumped up to No. 5 in Monday’s AP Poll, do not appear to be as lucky with the injury to star guard Grace Berger who hurt her knee in Friday’s 96-81 win over Auburn in the Las Vegas Invitational.
In her Monday night interview on Inside Indiana Women’s Basketball, head coach Teri Moren said Berger would be out indefinitely and was day-to-day. Moren ruled Berger out for Indiana’s matchup with No. 6 North Carolina on Thursday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
“We’ll move forward. We have other pieces,” Moren said in the interview. “We were still able to score an awful lot of points at that tournament without Grace which was a great sign. We want her back as quickly as we can get her back, but as of right now, with her being out indefinitely, there’s gonna be opportunities for other people to step up in a big way.”
Berger’s averaging 10.3 points and five rebounds per game on a team that’s received well-balanced scoring across its first seven games. Mackenzie Holmes leads the Hoosiers with 20 points and 8.7 rebounds per game so far this season. Indiana’s also been buoyed by Minnesota transfer Sara Scalia who’s averaging 13.3 points per game and freshman standout Yarden Garzon who’s shooting nearly 53 percent from beyond the arc (18 for 34).
Contrary to last season, when Moren relied on her starters for heavy minutes, she’s confident in her team’s depth to help weather the storm in Berger’s absence.
On Saturday, the Hoosiers took down Memphis, 79-64, to improve to 7-0 in their first full game without Berger.
“There was a job to do, and it was all hands on deck,” Moren said of how the injury impacted the weekend. “We needed to finish the job, and again, our toughness was incredible. That’s what I was so proud of with our group. We were able to score the ball, but we had to have different people step up.”
