Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Joe Sullivan
November 24, 2023 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
BC rolled through Providence this week as part of a 3-2 start to the season.
Thanksgiving week is a unique time in college basketball because it represents a break-free point from the season's opening weeks. The first handful of games already build identities and offer points of emphasis for players and coaches, and a holiday tournament, the kind of multi-team event that simulates postseason play with multiple games against unknown opponents, offers a fun environment for a competitive getaway. In many ways, the timing is an opportunity to assess, analyze and improve before conference play, which often looms on the horizon ahead.
It keeps in line with the ideas of team-building and reflection, and as a Friday morning dawn crested over the Florida shoreline, Boston College women's basketball was ready to take stock of its roster and how much has changed from the start of the season after a 3-2 start led the Eagles to the Shell Division of the Fort Myers Women's Tip-Off with Marquette, Wisconsin and Arkansas.
"[The record] is a testament to our team and its sticktoitiveness," said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee after BC's 71-56 win over Providence last time out. "Their relentlessness is what we're trying to be. We talk about changing our identity a little bit as a team, which is to say that we don't want to change but rather grow into our identity, and we really want to be a relentless team."
Fielding a determined and hungry roster is what every team strives to build, but BC is starting to poke its perseverance through the early part of the season by showing how to put disappointment in the rearview mirror. The opening round win over Holy Cross was a trial by fire for a team that had never stepped on a floor together, and the warts from that victory came back to haunt the Eagles when Harvard erased a double-digit lead in the 68-59 loss at home. Finding the strength to look through that game pushed BC to a 57-48 win over Northeastern, but the first road trip to Ohio State saw a top-10 team blow through a 71-56 loss before the Providence win set things right.Â
"It's important [to bounce back]," said forward Teya Sidberry. "We play a lot of games in a short period of time, so the quick turnarounds are important for everybody to stay engaged at practice. That helps us in those next games where we [learn] from those losses and come away with wins."
Sidberry enjoyed a breakout performance against the Friars with 22 points and nine rebounds. A transfer from the Pac-12 champion Utah Utes, she specifically owned the offensive glass with seven boards, and her two steals were part of a performance where the Eagles set a single-game record for takeaways with 22 despite no single player individually recording four.Â
Both Sidberry and JoJo Lacey had at least seven rebounds, and Dontavia Waggoner added six boards from the backcourt with three on each window, which in turn allowed BC to maintain a healthy lead over the Friars despite shooting 31 percent in a second quarter where Providence outscored the Eagles but never gained the lead. In total, the Eagles led for all but 40 seconds of the four quarters despite holding a narrow shooting percentage lead over a team that went 6-for-10 in the fourth quarter.
"Our offense changes just a little bit against a team that plays some zone," Bernabei-McNamee said. "I think in the first half when they went to it, we were on the opposite end of the floor where the team couldn't really hear my voice, so we looked a little disheveled for a possession or two. But I think once they figured it out, as a team, they knew what needed to get done and moved on. In play, what we do best against zone, it all looked fine."
Every team switches between man-to-man and zone in some capacity, but Marquette, BC's opponent on Friday, is one of the best defensive teams in the country and a stingy opponent capable of shutting down even the fiercest attack. Its 53 points allowed rank 31st in the country opposite a plus-33 scoring differential in the first four games that's driven largely a 60-point win over Saint Peter's on Sunday.
The Peacocks separately lost by 70 to Illinois, but the Fighting Illini lost to the Golden Eagles in an early-season matchup between contenders for the national tournament. A First Four team from a year ago, Illinois traveled to Wisconsin and lost by four to a Marquette squad that nearly won the Big East last year before losing its NCAA First Round game to South Florida in overtime.Â
Getting through Marquette is a huge opportunity and challenge for the growth of the BC roster, and it's separately a chance to erase the up-and-down, win-loss nature of the current results. Marquette is a big team capable of rolling multiple six-foot players at each position, but the Eagles played faster against Providence than their previous four games. They also moved together as one on the defensive end - a staple to Bernabei-McNamee's desired flow.
"When we're causing turnovers and moving together on defense, we're able to grab [steals] and push our primary options to get some points off turnovers," said the coach. "I think that's kind of what our team loves because our defense can translate to offense."
"That's everything we practice," said guard T'Yana Todd, whose 13 points included a 3-for-4 day on three-pointers en route to a 5-for-7 day overall shooting. "After a tough loss, we just get it back, and we know what we're capable of. Especially after Ohio State, which is a great team, we just wanted to come back after that loss [and work]."
BC and Marquette tip-off on Friday at 4:30 p.m. from the Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Florida. Winners and losers advance to play either Arkansas or Wisconsin at 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. on Saturday with all coverage available via livestream through the Florida Southwestern State College host site.
It keeps in line with the ideas of team-building and reflection, and as a Friday morning dawn crested over the Florida shoreline, Boston College women's basketball was ready to take stock of its roster and how much has changed from the start of the season after a 3-2 start led the Eagles to the Shell Division of the Fort Myers Women's Tip-Off with Marquette, Wisconsin and Arkansas.
"[The record] is a testament to our team and its sticktoitiveness," said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee after BC's 71-56 win over Providence last time out. "Their relentlessness is what we're trying to be. We talk about changing our identity a little bit as a team, which is to say that we don't want to change but rather grow into our identity, and we really want to be a relentless team."
Fielding a determined and hungry roster is what every team strives to build, but BC is starting to poke its perseverance through the early part of the season by showing how to put disappointment in the rearview mirror. The opening round win over Holy Cross was a trial by fire for a team that had never stepped on a floor together, and the warts from that victory came back to haunt the Eagles when Harvard erased a double-digit lead in the 68-59 loss at home. Finding the strength to look through that game pushed BC to a 57-48 win over Northeastern, but the first road trip to Ohio State saw a top-10 team blow through a 71-56 loss before the Providence win set things right.Â
"It's important [to bounce back]," said forward Teya Sidberry. "We play a lot of games in a short period of time, so the quick turnarounds are important for everybody to stay engaged at practice. That helps us in those next games where we [learn] from those losses and come away with wins."
Sidberry enjoyed a breakout performance against the Friars with 22 points and nine rebounds. A transfer from the Pac-12 champion Utah Utes, she specifically owned the offensive glass with seven boards, and her two steals were part of a performance where the Eagles set a single-game record for takeaways with 22 despite no single player individually recording four.Â
Both Sidberry and JoJo Lacey had at least seven rebounds, and Dontavia Waggoner added six boards from the backcourt with three on each window, which in turn allowed BC to maintain a healthy lead over the Friars despite shooting 31 percent in a second quarter where Providence outscored the Eagles but never gained the lead. In total, the Eagles led for all but 40 seconds of the four quarters despite holding a narrow shooting percentage lead over a team that went 6-for-10 in the fourth quarter.
"Our offense changes just a little bit against a team that plays some zone," Bernabei-McNamee said. "I think in the first half when they went to it, we were on the opposite end of the floor where the team couldn't really hear my voice, so we looked a little disheveled for a possession or two. But I think once they figured it out, as a team, they knew what needed to get done and moved on. In play, what we do best against zone, it all looked fine."
Every team switches between man-to-man and zone in some capacity, but Marquette, BC's opponent on Friday, is one of the best defensive teams in the country and a stingy opponent capable of shutting down even the fiercest attack. Its 53 points allowed rank 31st in the country opposite a plus-33 scoring differential in the first four games that's driven largely a 60-point win over Saint Peter's on Sunday.
The Peacocks separately lost by 70 to Illinois, but the Fighting Illini lost to the Golden Eagles in an early-season matchup between contenders for the national tournament. A First Four team from a year ago, Illinois traveled to Wisconsin and lost by four to a Marquette squad that nearly won the Big East last year before losing its NCAA First Round game to South Florida in overtime.Â
Getting through Marquette is a huge opportunity and challenge for the growth of the BC roster, and it's separately a chance to erase the up-and-down, win-loss nature of the current results. Marquette is a big team capable of rolling multiple six-foot players at each position, but the Eagles played faster against Providence than their previous four games. They also moved together as one on the defensive end - a staple to Bernabei-McNamee's desired flow.
"When we're causing turnovers and moving together on defense, we're able to grab [steals] and push our primary options to get some points off turnovers," said the coach. "I think that's kind of what our team loves because our defense can translate to offense."
"That's everything we practice," said guard T'Yana Todd, whose 13 points included a 3-for-4 day on three-pointers en route to a 5-for-7 day overall shooting. "After a tough loss, we just get it back, and we know what we're capable of. Especially after Ohio State, which is a great team, we just wanted to come back after that loss [and work]."
BC and Marquette tip-off on Friday at 4:30 p.m. from the Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Florida. Winners and losers advance to play either Arkansas or Wisconsin at 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. on Saturday with all coverage available via livestream through the Florida Southwestern State College host site.
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Thursday, October 22
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