Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Matthew Scott Hawley
How BC Grit Won Crunch Time
January 07, 2020 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Beating Pitt on the road brings BC back home to face Notre Dame.
In sports, there is no way to fully prepare for crunch time. Every athlete understands its meaning, how the drama increases. The lights burn brighter, creating a more intense heat. It melts away prior preparation, instead focusing on desire in every moment. It's the championship rounds of a boxing match, a time when pugilists are forced to harness energy in its rawest form.
Winning in crunch time requires an attitude more than it does a skill, which is why Boston College women's basketball head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee loves talking about grit. It's her mantra and motto because the grittiest players crave the moment when the lights get hotter with the game on the line.
It's also why last week's 79-70 win over Pittsburgh felt so satisfying. A standard four-quarter game transformed into a grueling, emotional see-saw without a true upper hand. Both teams rallied from deficits to force the other to make plays, forcing someone to hit heavyweight shots before the final bell rang through the Petersen Events Center.
"We were down (at the end of the first quarter) but went on a run in that second quarter to take the lead (into halftime)," McNamee said. "Then we went up 10 in the third, but they cut that lead in about a minute and 30 seconds worth of game time. It was a situation where we fouled, they hit a couple of free throws, then we threw the ball away and give up a three. Then we miss a shot and they make a shot, and we wind up going down at the start of the fourth quarter.
"We had to keep it steady, which we did before we started playing better (down the stretch)," she said.
It built an organic electric atmosphere for BC's final push in the fourth quarter. Tied at 66-66 with four minutes left, Marnelle Garraud buried two three-pointers around a layup by Makayla Dickens. The Eagles combined it with stingy defense, building a 10-2 run that ultimately buried the Panthers and sent BC home with its first conference win of the season.
"Pitt played scrappy and very hard," McNamee said. "And we matched it. We just needed to play smarter (over the course of the full game), but when we needed to control the game, we did."
Garraud scored eight points in the fourth quarter alone as part of an 18-point night, while Dickens finished with 26 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes. The duo combined to shoot 17-of-28 from the floor, including 7-of-12 on three pointers. They added 13 assists, including eight by Dickens, with each grabbing two steals on the defensive end.
Four Eagles finished in double figures, including Emma Guy, who went 5-of-9 from inside the arc, and Cameron Swartz, who shot 2-of-3 from outside. Guy added nine rebounds, second on the team in the game behind only Taylor Soule, who had nine points and 10 rebounds despite only playing 19 minutes due to foul trouble.
"Marnelle really stepped up, and Makayla had a ridiculously great game," McNamee said. "(Taylor Soule) played less than 20 minutes but could've had an 18-point, 19-rebound game. We shared the ball very well, and our only mistakes were on the defensive end."
The Panthers just under 40 percent in the game, but they stayed competitive because of a 10-of-15 performance from the free throw stripe. Gabbie Green went bombs away from outside, hitting all four of her shots made from her eight three-point attempts, but she also committed five turnovers. She combined with Aysia Bugg and Emy Hayford for a tough day shooting the three, hitting only six of their 15 attempted shots (Marcella Lamark took a three point shot that missed to round out the numbers).
On the inside work, Rita Igbokwe went 6-for-10, but Dayshanette Harris missed all of her 10 attempts. Harris more than made up for it by getting to the line, going 5-of-6 from the stripe while grabbing eight rebounds.
"I thought we played hard, but we didn't play smart at times," McNamee said. "We had a lot of time to go over and really work on Pitt, and through that time, we really got to know their personnel. We knew they had personnel that could shoot from outside and some that couldn't, so we decided to play them a certain way based on who was in the game."
The win became the necessary lift coming out of the loss to NC State during the prior weekend. In that game, the Eagles outplayed the undefeated, nationally-ranked Wolfpack in at least the second quarter and hung with an elite team through the third. But an early scoring discrepancy made the fourth quarter an uphill struggle, sinking the team in its second bid for an ACC victory.
Beating Pitt enables the Eagles to enter Thursday's game at Notre Dame as winners in three of their last four games. It's a momentum builder as the team prepares to play the two-time defending national finalists in a building recognized as a graveyard for visiting teams.
The last decade saw Notre Dame lose more than one game during only two seasons at the Joyce Center. The Irish completed a perfect home record on three separate occasions, going 169-9 between the 2009-2010 season and the end of last year. It was a part of a decade-long run with seven Final Four appearances, including five straight from 2011-2015. The 2018 national championship was the program's second banner, and it nearly repeated after losing by one to Baylor in last year's final.
It's a big reason why the Eagles aren't taking Notre Dame's current 6-9 record - and 2-5 home mark - lightly. This is a younger Irish roster, which takes its lumps earlier in games, but it still can hit the gas pedal if given the opportunity later in games.
"Notre Dame had three first round draft choices in last year's WNBA Draft," McNamee said. "And two more players went in the second round. So they're still Notre Dame. They're still a team defending two straight national championship games. They still run the same system, and they're still very talented. So I think this game is going to be really exciting for us to play."
BC will travel to Indiana to play at Notre Dame on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The game can be seen via the ACC Network Extra streaming service through WatchESPN.com.
Winning in crunch time requires an attitude more than it does a skill, which is why Boston College women's basketball head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee loves talking about grit. It's her mantra and motto because the grittiest players crave the moment when the lights get hotter with the game on the line.
It's also why last week's 79-70 win over Pittsburgh felt so satisfying. A standard four-quarter game transformed into a grueling, emotional see-saw without a true upper hand. Both teams rallied from deficits to force the other to make plays, forcing someone to hit heavyweight shots before the final bell rang through the Petersen Events Center.
"We were down (at the end of the first quarter) but went on a run in that second quarter to take the lead (into halftime)," McNamee said. "Then we went up 10 in the third, but they cut that lead in about a minute and 30 seconds worth of game time. It was a situation where we fouled, they hit a couple of free throws, then we threw the ball away and give up a three. Then we miss a shot and they make a shot, and we wind up going down at the start of the fourth quarter.
"We had to keep it steady, which we did before we started playing better (down the stretch)," she said.
It built an organic electric atmosphere for BC's final push in the fourth quarter. Tied at 66-66 with four minutes left, Marnelle Garraud buried two three-pointers around a layup by Makayla Dickens. The Eagles combined it with stingy defense, building a 10-2 run that ultimately buried the Panthers and sent BC home with its first conference win of the season.
"Pitt played scrappy and very hard," McNamee said. "And we matched it. We just needed to play smarter (over the course of the full game), but when we needed to control the game, we did."
Garraud scored eight points in the fourth quarter alone as part of an 18-point night, while Dickens finished with 26 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes. The duo combined to shoot 17-of-28 from the floor, including 7-of-12 on three pointers. They added 13 assists, including eight by Dickens, with each grabbing two steals on the defensive end.
Four Eagles finished in double figures, including Emma Guy, who went 5-of-9 from inside the arc, and Cameron Swartz, who shot 2-of-3 from outside. Guy added nine rebounds, second on the team in the game behind only Taylor Soule, who had nine points and 10 rebounds despite only playing 19 minutes due to foul trouble.
"Marnelle really stepped up, and Makayla had a ridiculously great game," McNamee said. "(Taylor Soule) played less than 20 minutes but could've had an 18-point, 19-rebound game. We shared the ball very well, and our only mistakes were on the defensive end."
The Panthers just under 40 percent in the game, but they stayed competitive because of a 10-of-15 performance from the free throw stripe. Gabbie Green went bombs away from outside, hitting all four of her shots made from her eight three-point attempts, but she also committed five turnovers. She combined with Aysia Bugg and Emy Hayford for a tough day shooting the three, hitting only six of their 15 attempted shots (Marcella Lamark took a three point shot that missed to round out the numbers).
On the inside work, Rita Igbokwe went 6-for-10, but Dayshanette Harris missed all of her 10 attempts. Harris more than made up for it by getting to the line, going 5-of-6 from the stripe while grabbing eight rebounds.
"I thought we played hard, but we didn't play smart at times," McNamee said. "We had a lot of time to go over and really work on Pitt, and through that time, we really got to know their personnel. We knew they had personnel that could shoot from outside and some that couldn't, so we decided to play them a certain way based on who was in the game."
The win became the necessary lift coming out of the loss to NC State during the prior weekend. In that game, the Eagles outplayed the undefeated, nationally-ranked Wolfpack in at least the second quarter and hung with an elite team through the third. But an early scoring discrepancy made the fourth quarter an uphill struggle, sinking the team in its second bid for an ACC victory.
Beating Pitt enables the Eagles to enter Thursday's game at Notre Dame as winners in three of their last four games. It's a momentum builder as the team prepares to play the two-time defending national finalists in a building recognized as a graveyard for visiting teams.
The last decade saw Notre Dame lose more than one game during only two seasons at the Joyce Center. The Irish completed a perfect home record on three separate occasions, going 169-9 between the 2009-2010 season and the end of last year. It was a part of a decade-long run with seven Final Four appearances, including five straight from 2011-2015. The 2018 national championship was the program's second banner, and it nearly repeated after losing by one to Baylor in last year's final.
It's a big reason why the Eagles aren't taking Notre Dame's current 6-9 record - and 2-5 home mark - lightly. This is a younger Irish roster, which takes its lumps earlier in games, but it still can hit the gas pedal if given the opportunity later in games.
"Notre Dame had three first round draft choices in last year's WNBA Draft," McNamee said. "And two more players went in the second round. So they're still Notre Dame. They're still a team defending two straight national championship games. They still run the same system, and they're still very talented. So I think this game is going to be really exciting for us to play."
BC will travel to Indiana to play at Notre Dame on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The game can be seen via the ACC Network Extra streaming service through WatchESPN.com.
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