After Circling the Wagons Defensively, It's Onto Syracuse

Last year's college basketball season taught student-athletes unique skills they never thought they would revisit. It drove right through the center of last year's portion of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the various stops and starts associated with the pre-vaccine era forced teams to adapt to a flexible schedule that started and stopped at a moment's notice.

Teams never thought they would revisit those days, but the latest outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic dredged up an old thought process over the past two weeks. The schedule, set months ago, started to fall into flux, and teams once again found themselves on the hunt for new games. The "we got next" frame of mind reemerged, and new games against new opponents suddenly appeared.

At Boston College, as a league game found itself moved into mid-February, one last non-conference opponent reemerged, and after thinking their game against New Hampshire would never happen after an earlier cancellation, the Eagles rebounded from a loss at Louisville to administer an 88-52 blowout less than two days later.

"We only had a day [to prepare for UNH]," said senior forward Taylor Soule, "but we had a good practice [between games]. And I think after last year with the COVID year, we had to be quick to flip the switch when your teammate would go into quarantine or someone would have COVID. You never knew when you were going to have a game or have a game taken away, so for us to lock in, it was about doing what we had to do to get the win, and that was good for us."

Last Saturday's game arose quickly, but it offered a closing chapter to one of the women's college basketball season's strangest sagas. It wasn't a formal rescheduling, but BC and UNH initially planned to play one another on December 11. Both teams received medical clearance for that game, but the Wildcats declined and essentially erased its existence from the record books. Per NCAA rules, it became a no contest, and neither team received a win or a loss.

BC hosted UNC eight days later and later played Sacred Heart in its final pre-Christmas tuneup. Louisville loomed afterwards on December 30, and the road trip to Kentucky preceded a three-day turnaround to a home game against Pittsburgh. That would start the Atlantic Coast Conference's furious sprint to March with no breaks essentially separating the Eagles from their January 6 game against Syracuse.

UNH, meanwhile, intended to jump into America East Conference play. UMass-Lowell was on the schedule while BC was in Kentucky, and a game at UMBC preceded the Wildcats' own dive into games against Vermont, Albany and Maine. Like the ACC, no more than four or five days off existed, and it was hardly enough time to squeeze in another game against a non-conference, power league team.

Even thinking about this game required the perfect set of unfortunate circumstances, but COVID-19 forced Pittsburgh to move its game against BC to February. It allowed the BC men's team to slip into a Sunday time slot for its game against North Carolina and freed up Saturday for a potential New Year's Day game for the women's team.

The remaining question concerned the opponent, and UNH became available when the games against UML and UMBC were postponed. The right phone calls and channels opened, and in the blink of an eye, New Hampshire emerged as the unexpected, final non-league game for the Boston College program.

"On top of everything else, we can't really turn down a game when we can get one," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "You don't know what the future is going to hold, so we want to make sure any opportunity we have to play a game, we get it. We have to jump on it, so having the open day, we scoured around and UNH had a cancellation over the weekend. It wound up working out."

The game itself wasn't tremendously competitive after the first quarter, but UNH played frisky basketball to exit the first 10 minutes with only a one possession deficit. The Wildcats briefly led, but after BC rattled off the first 17 points of the second quarter, a 21-0 run destroyed their hopes of an upset. The Eagles pressed, and their surge and scheme forced 14 turnovers in the second alone. UNH failed to score for over six minutes, and after a 30-8 run over the entire period, BC never looked back from a 22-point lead.

"It was a press," Bernabei-McNamee said of her defense, "so there are certain things we wanted to force [UNH] into. I think [our team] having their brand of athleticism makes any press look good, and having the quickness and anticipation and athleticism [allowed them] to go get those steals."

A defensive clinic built BC's lead to as many as 43 points in the fourth quarter, and the 36-point win finished with seven players with at least one steal. Five Eagles contributed multiple takeaways, and sophomore transfer Dontavia Waggoner matched her five rebounds with five steals.

Her breakout performance keyed the back end and further helped situational numbers for BC's dominance. The Eagles shot 62 percent in the second quarter and just under 70 percent in the third, and they ran away with a plus-24 advantage off turnovers while outsourcing the Wildcats by 16 on the fast break. They crushed UNH inside for 54 points in the paint and maintained second chance points with 17 offensive rebounds to just three for their opponent.

"I'm a defensive player first," Waggoner said. "I always think that defense steers the offense, and when we're getting turnovers like that, back-to-back, it gets us excited, and that makes the game much more fun."

She only scored seven points, but her crunch time defense on the other end destroyed UNH's offense. Both teams hit nine field goals in the first quarter, but the Wildcats' 69 percent shooting percentage dropped precipitously to nine made field goals over the next three quarters. They only attempted nine shots in the second and fourth quarters, and BC's 24 second quarter shots - of which 15 went in - were only six less than UNH attempted over the rest of the game.

UNH had about half the number of assists as BC, and Kaylah Ivey's seven helpers off the bench augmented a day on which Cameron Swartz and Taylor Soule added nine combined assists. Soule added five offensive rebounds, and while BC was outrebounded on the defensive window, its 17 offensive rebounds were only five less than the defensive boards grabbed by the Wildcats.

The steals, though, remained the story of the game. Waggoner's five steals were more than the four committed by the entire UNH roster, and the team's 15 overall takeaways contributed to 29 Wildcat turnovers. That BC didn't foul only furthered and helped the mentality of a team that ran the table in non-conference home games on the season.

"I loved the way [Dontavia] was getting up in the passing lane," Bernabei-McNamee said. "She was out there defending at the top, and I don't think those kids [from UNH] could even sniff [a basket]. Then offensively she runs the floor hard and makes up for mistakes. I think she's continuing to grow, and she's the player that our team grows confidence on offense from defense."

"I knew on this team, before I came here, that it was a team with a lot of shooters," Waggoner said, "and there were a lot of offensive players. The defense was there, and this was a good defensive team. So I [felt the style] was my strong suit, and I wanted to go somewhere where I could fit right in with my defensive style - and then grow my offensive game."

The result was exactly what the Eagles needed after absorbing the blowout loss to the top-ranked Cardinals. They harbored no shame from that game - few teams could blame anyone for losing to Louisville in the wake of its win over UConn - but BC still felt like there was meat left on the bone from its performance in Kentucky. The intention was to regroup and rebound for Pittsburgh, but when that game postponed, the opportunity to defeat one last New England opponent steadied the ship prior to Thursday's rivalry matchup against Syracuse.

"[A zone defense] is predictable, and we got to work on our zone offense," Bernabei-McNamee said of playing UNH. "They will play some man-to-man too, but it's mainly zone [against Syracuse], and we've got to be willing to move the ball while handling pressure. In my opinion, if we can limit our turnovers and play with confidence and discipline, we're a really, really good basketball team. We've just got to get that consistency, and that's something you build. Everybody's buying in to do their part, and I'm lucky to coach a team that's willing to do that."

The Eagles and Orange will tip off on Thursday at 7 p.m. from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on the ACC Network Extra online streaming package for cable subscribers with access to the network.

After Circling the Wagons Defensively, It's Onto Syracuse

Players Mentioned

Kaylah Ivey

Taylor Soule

Cameron Swartz

Dontavia Waggoner

Related Videos