Boston College Athletics
Monster Performances Lifting Young Eagles Over B1G Challenges
December 01, 2022 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
BC thumped Rutgers on Wednesday to move to 6-3 on the season.
A sense of irony hung over Conte Forum on Wednesday night. It was the first night of the final ACC-Big Ten Women's Challenge, but the matchup in Chestnut Hill pit two teams against one another for what felt like a throwback game to a previous era. Boston College ran out of one tunnel as the ACC's host institution, and the Eagles sought to win their second consecutive year in the competition after losing in 2019 and missing the 2017 and 2018 iterations altogether.Â
The Eagles had beaten Penn State last season to earn their first victory in the Challenge since beating Purdue, 58-56, in 2015, but history hadn't exactly been kind to a program that beat the Nittany Lions in the first-ever competition in 2010. Sending it out with a win before next year transitioned to a competition against the SEC would have meant something to the program's roots, but the clouded shroud smirked at the fact that the last hurrah would feature BC and Rutgers, a former Big East foe.
The Scarlet Knights were one of women's college basketball's darling programs for a time, but this year was the first time the two teams had met since 2012. It was the fifth meeting as non-conference opponents and the first since Rutgers defected from the Big East to join the Big Ten, and, perhaps most notable, it was the first time the two teams would meet without C. Vivian Stringer patrolling the opposing sidelines.
The hall of fame coach had retired after last season, but the fingerprints of a coach with 1,055 career wins were still visible on a roster in transition. It was hard to shake the feeling of how Rutgers lost the 2007 national championship to Tennessee or how it was less than five years removed from appearances in the 2019 and 2021 national tournaments, and it was equally impossible to not offer a modicum of respect to a program built by a certified legend.
All of that aside, it was also impossible not to notice how the Eagles thumped their way through a Big Ten team for three quarters or how the babies grew up and matured through one of the most complete performances of the season in a 75-61 win following the disappointing split that occurred after losing to Stephen F. Austin in the Puerto Rico Clasico last weekend.
"It's really impressive to see the resiliency with a young team," said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. "They are going to have games where things don't go their way, and especially after that last game in Puerto Rico, I made kind of a self-scout of that game. It was the 'Bad News Bears' against SFA because that's how we looked. It was not the way we normally played, but leading up to this game, from the opening jump, there was the most energy that this team has displayed. I think it showed from the way we came out from the start of the game, and I'm proud of that. That's something, that energy, it's really contagious, and if they can keep bringing that and sticking together, they're going to be a fun team to grow with."
Almost everything BC touched turned to gold in the first three quarters of Wednesday's matchup, and it paced the Eagles to a blowout advantage before the popcorn machines could warm up the Conte Forum concourse. An early 8-0 run in the first two-plus minutes helped create a shutout before Rutgers scored its first basket with 7:17 remaining in the first quarter, and a second, more miniature 5-0 run built an 11-point lead before the Scarlet Knights clawed back to within five. Undaunted, BC responded in kind, but a three-pointer, a jumper, and a couple of free throws brought Rutgers back within two before the quarter ended.
The door essentially slammed shut from there after BC broke the start of the second quarter with another 8-0 run that comprised the bulk of a larger 11-2 run over the next four minutes. A series of impressive inside-out looks kept Rutgers on roller skates in the back end, and momentum quantified itself into a nine-point advantage in just that quarter and an 11-point lead at halftime. Seven points from Maria Gakdeng in the second quarter helped her break double digits before the break, and JoJo Lacey's ongoing development led to eight points, two rebounds and an assist as the teams retreated into the locker room.
"It has to do a lot with trusting each other," Lacey said. "As a junior, I feel like some of our job is to hold people accountable, but it starts with us to realize that we're leading this team. We're a very young team, so we have to hold ourselves accountable by talking, working, and bringing it in practice. After [Puerto Rico] happened, this week really kept us together [to produce on Wednesday]."
That natural order continued to confirm BC's dominance in a third quarter that saw the Eagles crush Rutgers with a stifling defensive effort. The Scarlet Knights hit one field goal in the period, and though it was a three-pointer, nothing else canned the bucket for the full ten minutes besides a couple of free throws. They shot 1-for-12 and 1-for-6 from outside, and BC's 15 rebounds nearly doubled up Rutgers in the quarter alone. Lacey added six points while grabbing three boards as attention started moving away from the basket, but not even a herky-jerky fourth quarter that saw the visitors close the gap by a factor of nine points diminished the cruise control instituted through the three-quarter blowout.
"I thought we really communicated well and took care of business [early]," said Bernabei-McNamee. "In that third quarter, we really showed our ability to focus because sometimes that's hard during the longevity of the game. When you're younger, keeping that focus at a high level, and especially where we have teenagers playing a ton of minutes, it can be easy to lose focus on a possession. I thought those first three quarters had a lot of focus, and in the fourth, we just got a little out of sorts."
It wasn't perfect - early blowouts almost never close the fourth quarter with the crisp play from the initial exchange - but it was resounding enough to lift BC's profile after the disappointing defeat to a tournament at-large contender last week. It didn't erase those memories but illustrated how the learning curve is shrinking for a team built around the early maturation of the team's youth movement.
Guard Taina Mair, for example, became the only player in women's college basketball to post at least 10 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five assists after she flirted with a triple-double. She had seven assists in the second quarter alone as part of an 11-assist night, and her 14 points, seven rebounds, and five steals helped her become the first member of the 10-10-5-5 club this season, while the team itself recorded 15 offensive boards for the seventh time in nine games. Its 69.2 assist percentage was a season high, and the defense improved to 46-4 under Bernabei-McNamee when holding opponents to 65 points or less.
Gakdeng finished with a game-high 15 points while Lacey had 14 points, five rebounds, and four steals, and Andrea Daley very quietly scored 10 points by hitting six free throws in the effort. Dontavia Waggoner's evolution as a complete player also continued, and she finished with nine points in addition to eight rebounds and three steals.
"One of the things that makes our team so special is that scoring can really come from anybody," Bernabei-McNamee said. "Even when we bring people off the bench, the scoring can continue from anybody. It was a highlight for me in this game, and this is probably the first time since I've been at Boston College that I've had this, is that [Mair] made about three or four of those play calls on her own. It didn't come from me, but they were great calls, and they worked. That's when you say you have a good point guard that makes the coach look pretty smart, and she did that for me."
BC now moves into one more non-conference game against Boston University before starting conference play next week against Virginia Tech. It's the second game of a seven-game homestand that runs through the holiday season, and it rematches the Eagles against a Patriot League opponent that shocked the tournament-caliber ACC roster at Case Gymnasium last season.
Game time is slated for 2 p.m. on Sunday with coverage available via the ACC Network Extra, which is available through online streaming and mobile device apps for cable subscribers with access to the ACC Network.
The Eagles had beaten Penn State last season to earn their first victory in the Challenge since beating Purdue, 58-56, in 2015, but history hadn't exactly been kind to a program that beat the Nittany Lions in the first-ever competition in 2010. Sending it out with a win before next year transitioned to a competition against the SEC would have meant something to the program's roots, but the clouded shroud smirked at the fact that the last hurrah would feature BC and Rutgers, a former Big East foe.
The Scarlet Knights were one of women's college basketball's darling programs for a time, but this year was the first time the two teams had met since 2012. It was the fifth meeting as non-conference opponents and the first since Rutgers defected from the Big East to join the Big Ten, and, perhaps most notable, it was the first time the two teams would meet without C. Vivian Stringer patrolling the opposing sidelines.
The hall of fame coach had retired after last season, but the fingerprints of a coach with 1,055 career wins were still visible on a roster in transition. It was hard to shake the feeling of how Rutgers lost the 2007 national championship to Tennessee or how it was less than five years removed from appearances in the 2019 and 2021 national tournaments, and it was equally impossible to not offer a modicum of respect to a program built by a certified legend.
All of that aside, it was also impossible not to notice how the Eagles thumped their way through a Big Ten team for three quarters or how the babies grew up and matured through one of the most complete performances of the season in a 75-61 win following the disappointing split that occurred after losing to Stephen F. Austin in the Puerto Rico Clasico last weekend.
"It's really impressive to see the resiliency with a young team," said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. "They are going to have games where things don't go their way, and especially after that last game in Puerto Rico, I made kind of a self-scout of that game. It was the 'Bad News Bears' against SFA because that's how we looked. It was not the way we normally played, but leading up to this game, from the opening jump, there was the most energy that this team has displayed. I think it showed from the way we came out from the start of the game, and I'm proud of that. That's something, that energy, it's really contagious, and if they can keep bringing that and sticking together, they're going to be a fun team to grow with."
Almost everything BC touched turned to gold in the first three quarters of Wednesday's matchup, and it paced the Eagles to a blowout advantage before the popcorn machines could warm up the Conte Forum concourse. An early 8-0 run in the first two-plus minutes helped create a shutout before Rutgers scored its first basket with 7:17 remaining in the first quarter, and a second, more miniature 5-0 run built an 11-point lead before the Scarlet Knights clawed back to within five. Undaunted, BC responded in kind, but a three-pointer, a jumper, and a couple of free throws brought Rutgers back within two before the quarter ended.
The door essentially slammed shut from there after BC broke the start of the second quarter with another 8-0 run that comprised the bulk of a larger 11-2 run over the next four minutes. A series of impressive inside-out looks kept Rutgers on roller skates in the back end, and momentum quantified itself into a nine-point advantage in just that quarter and an 11-point lead at halftime. Seven points from Maria Gakdeng in the second quarter helped her break double digits before the break, and JoJo Lacey's ongoing development led to eight points, two rebounds and an assist as the teams retreated into the locker room.
"It has to do a lot with trusting each other," Lacey said. "As a junior, I feel like some of our job is to hold people accountable, but it starts with us to realize that we're leading this team. We're a very young team, so we have to hold ourselves accountable by talking, working, and bringing it in practice. After [Puerto Rico] happened, this week really kept us together [to produce on Wednesday]."
That natural order continued to confirm BC's dominance in a third quarter that saw the Eagles crush Rutgers with a stifling defensive effort. The Scarlet Knights hit one field goal in the period, and though it was a three-pointer, nothing else canned the bucket for the full ten minutes besides a couple of free throws. They shot 1-for-12 and 1-for-6 from outside, and BC's 15 rebounds nearly doubled up Rutgers in the quarter alone. Lacey added six points while grabbing three boards as attention started moving away from the basket, but not even a herky-jerky fourth quarter that saw the visitors close the gap by a factor of nine points diminished the cruise control instituted through the three-quarter blowout.
"I thought we really communicated well and took care of business [early]," said Bernabei-McNamee. "In that third quarter, we really showed our ability to focus because sometimes that's hard during the longevity of the game. When you're younger, keeping that focus at a high level, and especially where we have teenagers playing a ton of minutes, it can be easy to lose focus on a possession. I thought those first three quarters had a lot of focus, and in the fourth, we just got a little out of sorts."
It wasn't perfect - early blowouts almost never close the fourth quarter with the crisp play from the initial exchange - but it was resounding enough to lift BC's profile after the disappointing defeat to a tournament at-large contender last week. It didn't erase those memories but illustrated how the learning curve is shrinking for a team built around the early maturation of the team's youth movement.
Guard Taina Mair, for example, became the only player in women's college basketball to post at least 10 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five assists after she flirted with a triple-double. She had seven assists in the second quarter alone as part of an 11-assist night, and her 14 points, seven rebounds, and five steals helped her become the first member of the 10-10-5-5 club this season, while the team itself recorded 15 offensive boards for the seventh time in nine games. Its 69.2 assist percentage was a season high, and the defense improved to 46-4 under Bernabei-McNamee when holding opponents to 65 points or less.
Gakdeng finished with a game-high 15 points while Lacey had 14 points, five rebounds, and four steals, and Andrea Daley very quietly scored 10 points by hitting six free throws in the effort. Dontavia Waggoner's evolution as a complete player also continued, and she finished with nine points in addition to eight rebounds and three steals.
"One of the things that makes our team so special is that scoring can really come from anybody," Bernabei-McNamee said. "Even when we bring people off the bench, the scoring can continue from anybody. It was a highlight for me in this game, and this is probably the first time since I've been at Boston College that I've had this, is that [Mair] made about three or four of those play calls on her own. It didn't come from me, but they were great calls, and they worked. That's when you say you have a good point guard that makes the coach look pretty smart, and she did that for me."
BC now moves into one more non-conference game against Boston University before starting conference play next week against Virginia Tech. It's the second game of a seven-game homestand that runs through the holiday season, and it rematches the Eagles against a Patriot League opponent that shocked the tournament-caliber ACC roster at Case Gymnasium last season.
Game time is slated for 2 p.m. on Sunday with coverage available via the ACC Network Extra, which is available through online streaming and mobile device apps for cable subscribers with access to the ACC Network.
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