Eagles Fall to No. 23 Miami, 76-73

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - In a back-and-forth, wild ACC game against No. 23 Miami that featured 18 ties and 17 lead changes, the Boston College women's basketball team came up short to the Hurricanes, 76-73, on Sunday at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida.

Boston College is now 13-7 overall and 2-5 in the ACC. Miami improved to 18-4 and 6-1 in the conference.

Shooting 50% from the floor (6-for-12), junior guard Taylor Ortlepp led six Eagles in double figures with 17 points, while freshman Taylor Soule followed with 13 points. Dickens continued her strong play in ACC action, finishing the game with 12 points, a team-high six assists and five rebound. Sophomore Sydney Lowery netted 11 points, while juniors Emma Guy and Georgia Pineau rounded out the six with 10 points each.

The Eagles held on to a four-point, 59-55, advantage heading into the final quarter against Miami. The Hurricanes opened the period with a 10-6 run to tie up the contest at 65. The game remained all square at 65-65 for the next three minutes before Miami's Beatrice Mornpremier broke the drought with a lay-up at 4:17.

Trailing by three with 2:28 left, a Guy layup cut the Miami lead to one point. Seconds later, Ortlepp picked the pocket of Endia Banks and took it back down the court for a fast-break lay-up to give BC a, 71-70, lead.

Down by one with under a minute to play, Dickens drained a mid-range jumper to give the lead back to the Eagles, 73-72. It was not enough as the Hurricanes went 4-for-6 from the charity stripe over the final 27 seconds to seal the three-point win.

In the first quarter, BC and Miami had seven ties and eight lead changes. With a little over two minutes to play in the period, junior Emma Guy gave BC a four-point lead, 16-12. Miami answered with 5-0 run to take its first lead, 17-16. The two teams battled back-and-forth to end the quarter all square at 22.

Miami utilized a two-minute, 11-3, run to open the second quarter and build a 33-25 lead. The Eagles would not go away quietly. Despite trailing by eight midway through the period, freshman Taylor Soule ignited an 8-2 run for the BC converting the traditional three-point play to make it a two-possession game.

Boston College found an offensive surge late in the period, compliments of juniors Taylor Ortlepp and Georgia Pineau. Down by five, Soule found Ortlepp at the far side wing to bring the Eagles back to within two points. After exchanging buckets, Pineau tied the game at 39-39 with a mid-range jumper just before the four-minute media timeout.

With under three minutes remaining in the half, Ortlepp knocked down a pair of free throws to give Boston College its first lead since the two-minute mark of the first quarter. The Eagles took advantage of a four-minute long field goal drought by the Hurricanes to take a two-point, 44-42, lead into the locker room.

The third quarter began exactly where the first half ended, with four ties and a pair of lead changes before the media timeout. While the BC defense controlled the Miami offense, the Eagles offense ignited. Dickens connected with Guy in the paint to spark an 9-1 run to build a 59-51 lead force the Hurricanes to burn a time out with 1:52 remaining the period.

BC HIGHLIGHTS
- Boston College shot 45 percent from the floor and 88.9 percent from the foul line in the game.
- BC had 10 steals and 15 assists.
- The Eagles had 40 points in the paint and 24 points off the bench.
- This was the second game this season in which BC has six players score in double-figures – Ortlepp (17 points), Soule (13 points), Dickens (12 points), Lowery (11 points), Guy & Pineau (10 points each). The last game BC had six double-figure scorers was on Dec. 29 against Dartmouth.
- Four Eagles fouled out – Makayla Dickens, Taylor Soule, Sydney Lowery and Georgia Pineau. BC had 30 personal fouls called and put Miami to the line 49 times.
- Boston College held the lead for 18:37, while Miami had it for 12:18.
- The biggest lead for both teams was eight points.

UP NEXT
- Boston College will host Duke (9-10, 1-6) on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast online via ACC Network Extra.
- Tickets for the 2018-19 women's basketball games are on sale. Fans can visit bceagles.com/tickets, or call 617-552-GoBC (4622) to speak with an account representative.

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Team Stats

Taylor Ortlepp

Taylor Soule

Makayla Dickens

Sydney Lowery

Players Mentioned

Makayla Dickens

Emma Guy

Sydney Lowery

Taylor Ortlepp

Georgia Pineau

Taylor Soule

Players Mentioned

Makayla Dickens

Emma Guy

Sydney Lowery

Taylor Ortlepp

Georgia Pineau

Taylor Soule