South Carolina will play for the NCAA title on Sunday.
The women's Final Four semifinal was played at Target Center on Friday.
South Carolina will play in the NCAA final for the second time. The national championship game was won by the Gamecocks. South Carolina lost in the SEC final on a late 3-pointer by Kentucky, but now will compete for the title that means the most.
Boston had a double-double streak end in the Elite Eight win over Creighton. She got back into the double-double business on Friday, finishing with 23 points and 18 rebound. She had four assists and looked like a player who has won every national player of the year award thus far.
Boston anchored a defense that made everything hard for Louisville, which finished its season 29-5.
Boston was left in tears after she missed a putback that would have won the game for her in the national semifinals. She has watched the video many times since and has talked about how she will not experience that again in the Final Four.
The game on Friday did not have that kind of drama. South Carolina made five of their first 10 shots and the Cards only made one of theirs in the game. That set the tone for the rest of the game. South Carolina was in control of the contest.
South Carolina led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter. It was the first time since the Wake Forest game that the Cards had trailed after the first quarter.
The Cards fought back. At the 6:48 mark of the second quarter, forward Emily Engstler stole a pass and went in for a layup, giving Louisville its first lead of the game.
Boston led the way with eight points and eight boards, as the Gamecocks were up 34-28 at halftime. The good news for the Cards is that they were within six despite the fact that guard Hailey Van Lith was limited to two points. The good news is that Van Lith had a better second half. She was limited to nine points in Louisville's first game of the NCAA tournament, after scoring at least 20 points in the first four games.
With 4.2 seconds left in the third quarter, Engstler picked up her fourth foul and the Gamecocks led 57-48. The transfer from Syracuse, who brought a lot of energy to the team this season, was forced to leave the game with 4:56 left in the game and buried her head in her hands on the Louisville bench. She had 18 points and nine rebound in her final college game.
South Carolina had four other players besides Boston score in double figures, and they all had 12 points or more.
South Carolina beat both teams in the regular season and will face either of the two teams in the national championship game.
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