BC's New Era Arrives With Fast-Paced Win Over River Hawks

The first four years of Joanna Bernabei-McNamee's reign at Boston College consistently offered proof of a winning women's basketball program. Two teams arguably belonged in the NCAA Tournament, and last season saw the Eagles advance to within a last second shot opportunity of the WNIT's quarterfinal round. The two years that didn't measure up to postseason standards either laid her first-season foundation or was heavily impacted by COVID-19, but the situational numbers across her teams' performances should have massaged any fear caused by even the worst game during those seasons.

None of that proof, though, made it difficult for doubters to reappear after BC underwent an offseason roster overhaul, and nearly every analyst's preseason prediction discussed the Eagles from a pure rebuilding focus. It was always going to take more than one game to erase or change perceptions, but it didn't hurt that the first game produced a resounding, 81-53 defeat of in-state rival UMass-Lowell on Monday evening.

"It felt really good in the second half," said Bernabei-McNamee of her team's win. "In the first half, we looked really young at times, but it was nice [for us] to get a feel for each other and our comfortability out there. The whole game, I loved our work ethic. [The players] are fun and energetic, and even when I felt like UMass-Lowell got some momentum swings going their way, I could still feel our bench and staff. We had each other's back."

It wasn't perfect, and the first half illustrated the growing pains associated with a team devoid of full-blown senior leadership after Lowell matched BC point-for-point in the second quarter. The Eagles led by seven after the first, but Jaini Edmonds and Jaliena Sanchez hit consecutive three-pointers and broke a five-point deficit to give the River Hawks two separate leads over a one-minute span of time. They never led by more than one possession, but an additional three-pointer by Kaylen Banwareesingh handed Lowell a third one-point lead as the period wound under its five-minute mark.

It was really the first time BC endured a cold stretch, and mistakes started to mount after turnovers handed possessions back to the River Hawks, who didn't have an offensive rebound in either the first or second quarter. The offense didn't hit a three-pointer until JoJo Lacey's shot with two minutes remaining, and foul trouble crept into a team that was called for 12 whistles in the first half.

"There were little mistakes," Bernabei-McNamee said, "but if you have a team that works hard and plays for each other, ironing out those wrinkles is pretty easy. What I love about this team at practice is that, every day, I get on them all the time and they let me coach them honestly. They don't take it personally, meaning they get after each other sometimes, and they're still going hard."

It didn't hurt that the third quarter essentially dry-cleaned, pressed, and starched BC's shirt into a dominant victory. Tiring of UMass-Lowell's ability to hang around in the first half, the Eagles went on a tear in the third quarter and outscored the River Hawks by a 22-7 margin. UML didn't hit a shot until Mili Carrera had a second-chance three-pointer with 2:24 remaining, and it was one of two made field goals during the entire period while the BC offense steamrolled its way through 12 fast break points and 16 points in the paint with a more settled approach led by freshman point guard Taina Mair, who had four assists and two steals in the third quarter alone.

"If I see someone like [Dontavia Waggoner] running down the floor, I'm going to give it to her every single time," Mair said. "I know she's going to finish, and even if she doesn't, she's going to get to the free throw line and hit her free throws. Even in the post, if I see [Maria Gakdeng], if she has a mismatch, I can see it and call her play, relax, and give her the ball."

Finding that chemistry anchored BC throughout the four quarters after virtually the entire roster scored points as the bench emptied late, but the night and debut belonged to Mair, the highly-touted recruit from the Brooks School. The Boston native finished with nine points but broke the single-game freshman assists record in her first appearance when she dished a team-best 13 helpers with an additional seven steals.

It paced an offense that experienced breakouts for juniors Waggoner and Lacey, and both finished with some of the best performances of their career. Waggoner went 5-for-6 shooting and used her ability to get to the line to pile a career-best 17 points, and her eight rebounds and four steals bookended Lacey's 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting with four steals. Maria Gakdeng very quietly turned in 13 points with eight boards and three blocks, and T'Yana Todd, another heavily-hyped recruit out of Canada, went 5-for-8 shooting while starting her first career game.

"I'm still getting used to it [on offense]," said Waggoner, who entered this season with a reputation as one of the nation's most dynamic defensive stoppers. "It's my first time starting and playing as much as I did, so once I got used to it and got used to how [the offense] is played, it just came naturally. I know that I can score. I just have to show it."

"It's exciting," Lacey added, "just honestly never giving up and working, no matter what, how long the process takes. I was happy to be out there."

That attitude - one of happiness and excitement - carried the ebullient Eagles through their first minutes on the court and laid a groundwork for the remainder of the season. Almost everyone expects BC to slip this year after losing four starters, and replacing the production of players like Marnelle Garraud, Cameron Swartz and all-everything forward Taylor Soule is going to draw nightly comparisons to other box scores, especially when Soule led No. 14 Virginia Tech with 14 points in her first game with the Hokies.

It will be hard not to have wandering eyes when those players built BC's winning culture, but Monday offered the first look at how the Eagles are moving forward with players specifically recruited over a four-year term. All of the players on the roster were brought to Chestnut Hill by Bernabei-McNamee, and the system she installed and executed with the ultra-talented players of years past has new stewards hand-selected to develop into a team capable of competing at that same level.

"I've said from the beginning of the summer that this is a team that plays with the defensive giddy-up," the coach said. "We made our share of little mistakes, but they're technical mistakes. They're going hard, and we have the speed and the size that we want to have. It's just kind of ironing out all of those little wrinkles that we need to iron out to make us into good form come ACC play, and that's what all of these games up to ACC play are going to do."

BC continues its early-season run through local competition on Thursday when it travels to Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion for its first road game of the season before returning home on Sunday to play nationally-ranked Ohio State in the ALZ Together Game. Game time on Thursday is 7 p.m., and the game can be seen on ESPN+ as part of the Ivy League's broadcast package.

BC's New Era Arrives With Fast-Paced Win Over River Hawks

Players Mentioned

Maria Gakdeng

JoJo Lacey

Taina Mair

T'yana Todd

Dontavia Waggoner