Deja Vu All Over Again

Boston College still trailed Notre Dame on its home court with less than 20 seconds on the fourth quarter clock, but the game felt very different than it did at the start of the period. The Fighting Irish led by as many as 14 with 5:33 left and by 12 as recently as 3:29 remaining, but the Eagles now threatened to pull even or, worse for the visitors, in front.

A Jaelyn Batts inbound pass found Taylor Soule on the right side, and the junior forward turned to drive face-up on an isolation. She pivoted towards the paint on her left side and drew Notre Dame's Destinee Walker into double coverage. She pivoted and picked up the dribble, but Walker's misstep freed Cameron Swartz for a ride to the basket. Soule continued to pivot, and a complete meltdown enabled her to feed a pass to Swartz while she spun.

Swartz was all alone on the left side of the cylinder, and she immediately dumped the ball into the basket. With blurred vision, it looked eerily similar to a seminal moment, a fire starter for the BC women's basketball program. Swartz was under the basket on the left side, and she hit a layup to ruin a road bid by Notre Dame.

Somewhere Emma Guy likely smiled. It was a little bit different, but it was deja vu.

A Notre Dame miss and two Makayla Dickens free throws later, the final score sealed the Irish fate. Boston College 64, Notre Dame 61.

"I thought our players played with so much heart in that fourth quarter," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said after the win. "Defensively, with our press, we came along. We didn't shoot the ball well the entire game but really came together at the end with some big shots. My adrenaline is still going crazy, and I am just really proud of what we did on the floor. It can be a turning point because it got that (first win) monkey off our back."

Swartz's basket took less than a second to leave her hands, but it completely changed the narrative of the previous 38 minutes. BC led by four in the game's first period but watched the Irish go ahead by seven before the quarter ended. The Eagles could only muster five baskets, including a paltry 2-for-9 from beyond the arc, as a sharp-shooting offensive team buried basket after basket.

The seven-point lead grew to 10 by halftime, but an undaunted BC team looked it square in the eye with the determination of a roster previously tested. As the third quarter started, the game descended into a similar story as the NC State game from earlier in the season. BC would cut it down to seven points before a quick 4-0 run extended the Fighting Irish back to 11. A turnover and layup would send momentum back to the home bench, but a foul and a free throw or a missed pass lobbed it back across court.

It wasn't until Notre Dame gained its largest lead of the game that the wheels inexplicably blew off the wagon. BC moved the 12-point lead to nine on a three-pointer by Dickens, and a steal by Dickens assisted a three-pointer by Marnelle Garraud cut it to six over a 15-second span. Garraud forced a second consecutive steal-and-score with Dickens to cut the lead to four.

"We really learned a lot from that NC State game at home," Bernabei-McNamee said. "They came back and beat us where we were up by a lot, so we don't feel like we're ever out of a game. They really showed us how to feel like that, and we took a page out of our book. During every timeout, you sometimes have to tell your team to press, but there was nothing like that on our team. We got into our press, and we made a little adjustment after (Notre Dame) got us once. We started rebounding a little bit better. At some point, we were going to hit some shots, but we held them to 22 points in the second half against a good offensive team."

The furious rally shell-shocked the Fighting Irish because it halved the lead in a little over one minute's worth of game time. Notre Dame hadn't hit a basket on the floor in over three minutes, and while free throws helped temporarily buoy the offense, the misses started piling up for the players clad in blue.

They failed to hit a field goal over more than half of the fourth period, all while BC went 5-for-6 and steamrolled a 16-1 run over the last 2:35. Dickens scored seven points in the quarter, and Garraud added six. Soule worked her way to five fourth quarter points by going 3-for-6 at the free throw line, and her three rebounds included two huge offensive boards.

It was part of a larger second half run by the trio that included 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting. Dickens finished with a plus-14 rating, and Soule and Garraud went for plus-13. Jaelyn Batts immersed herself in a gritty defense for a plus-17 with two points, and Swartz, the last second hero, hit her only basket after missing her first five in the second half at the game's most crucial juncture.

The statement win was a loud, resounding thunderclap for the Eagles after disappointing finishes in their first four league games. They entered Thursday after losing at No. 3 NC State by 19 after running with the Wolfpack for the second time this season.

The first loss to third-ranked NC State and the Syracuse game stung, and the team needed to get one against the Irish, a proud, national championship-caliber program that fell dormant in disappointment last season. After opening under .500, that team started to pick up steam more commensurate with its preseason national ranking and historical significance to the sport, and the back-to-back wins over Miami and Georgia Tech generated traction for new head coach Niele Ivey.

The comeback stole all of that thunder, and BC earned its third consecutive win over Notre Dame for the first time in program history. A program once used as Holy War fodder unmistakably announced the rivalry's presence and grabbed all of the momentum with a second matchup due later in the season.

The Eagles still look up at the bulk of the ACC even after winning their first conference game, but they head to Wake Forest on Sunday with a completely different feeling. They opened their ACC schedule by weathering the storm through two games against first place NC State and one against No. 18 Syracuse. The Georgia Tech loss came early and to a team currently situated in a spiritual tie with the Orange. That brand of schedule was always going to be difficult, but the exuberance is back with a history-making message.

"We're just excited to get this win," Bernabei-McNamee said. "We had tonight to celebrate, but we have to get back into the grind to prepare for Wake Forest. I don't even know that I think about all of that. We just want to get some wins and play as hard as we can to represent Boston College to the best of our ability."

Boston College and Wake Forest will tip off on Sunday, January 10 at 4 p.m. The game can be seen on national television via the ACC Network.

Players Mentioned

Jaelyn Batts

Makayla Dickens

Marnelle Garraud

Emma Guy

Taylor Soule

Cameron Swartz

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