Boston College Athletics
Boston College
North Carolina State *
Parham Lifts Eagles Past Wolfpack, 75-66
January 30, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2006
Complete Box Score in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - With the team's leading scorer struggling, Aja Parham kept No. 23 Boston College moving forward in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Parham scored a career-high 24 points and had 11 rebounds Monday night to lead the Eagles past No. 24 North Carolina State 75-66, giving them their second straight league win after an 0-4 start.
Lisa Macchia scored 18 for the Eagles (15-6, 2-4 ACC), while Kindyll Dorsey scored 15 points and hit a pair of key 3-pointers during BC's decisive second-half run.
Parham's big day offset a bad one for senior Brooke Queenan, who came in averaging a team-high 14.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. She finished with two points on 1-for-6 shooting before fouling out in 18 minutes.
But Parham finished 9-for-13 from the field and had two steals in 38 minutes, while the Eagles shot 50 percent and controlled the interior against the Wolfpack (13-7, 3-4).
Parham, a 6-foot senior, came in averaging 8.9 points per game.
"Our team is good at moving the ball, and I was the one getting the open shots this game," said Parham, whose previous career high was 18 points against Pittsburgh last season. "They were going in, so I was taking them. It just kind of worked out that way."
Now the Eagles are working their way out of a bad start to their first ACC season. The Eagles ended last season with a second-round NCAA tournament loss to future conference rival Duke, then lost their first four conference games this season.
But the Eagles earned their first win by beating Virginia 57-43 on Thursday, and followed that by using their size to control the interior against the smaller Wolfpack.
Boston College outrebounded N.C. State 40-33 and had a 32-14 edge in points in the paint, attacking the rim in the second half for scores or to reach the free-throw line.
BC also took better care of the ball, committing six second-half turnovers after committing 14 before the break.
"We talked about it at the half, that we had too many turnovers, that we need to be smarter with the ball," Boston College coach Cathy Inglese said. "Not to be cautious, but be smarter with our passes and come hard to the ball. There's going to be a lot of slapping and reaching, some of it may be called or not be called, but we had to be more aggressive with the ball."
Boston College became the first team to shoot 50 percent against N.C. State this season, handing the Wolfpack just their second home loss this season.
Boston College led 53-50 before going on a 15-4 spurt to take a double-digit lead. Parham started it with a 3 off a feed from Dorsey, who followed that with her own long-distance shot off a pass from Sarah Marshall for a 59-50 lead with 9:14 left.
Parham later scored when Macchia found her cutting through the lane for a basket, Dorsey hit her second 3 and Marshall added a pair of free throws that made it 68-54 with 5:06 left.
The Wolfpack got no closer than six points in the final minute.
Billie McDowell scored 16 points to lead the Wolfpack, who shot 37 percent and fell to 9-2 at Reynolds Coliseum this year. Tiffany Stansbury added 14 and Khadijah Whittington scored 13, but the rest of the Wolfpack shot just 9-for-34.
