New Generation Grabs First Brass Ring In First Round Win

For the past four years, Boston College women's basketball searched for the spark to carry the program back to the postseason. It relied on the team's experience in big moments and the learned, acquired database of disappointments and defeats that amassed along the way. Whether legitimate or existential, the Eagles knew they'd come close to the mountaintop over the past four years, and last year, their loss to Florida State in the ACC Tournament carried the withering knowledge that the dream of an NCAA Tournament likely died on the court in Greensboro two years after a world-changing pandemic robbed the era's foundational heroes of its initial opportunity.

As is the case in every intercollegiate sport, the moment operated on an exploding timeline bound by the roster's academic career. Head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee was always going to naturally turn the roster over to a new set of Eagles, and this year, the loss of four starters and depth leadership meant BC spent the season redefining its identity. From the start of the season, this wasn't the same team, but the pluses and minuses of the team nested the cocoon for a new attitude.

Wednesday night didn't change anything about the older era, but a torch passing that once felt ceremonial in games against Virginia Tech's Taylor Soule and Clara Ford or Georgia Tech's Cameron Swartz reached a decisive, final conclusion when the Eagles eliminated the Yellow Jackets in the ACC Tournament with a 62-57 first round win.

"Georgia Tech really played like the game was on the line," said Bernabei-McNamee. "That's the way tournament time is. Every game is do-or-die, so I was proud of the way we closed out. I think having Maria [Gakdeng] constantly available on the inside and shoot 100 percent from the floor is big for this kind of environment, and relying on her with our free throw shooting at the end of the game was good."

Postseason basketball is a beast with completely different characteristics from the regular season, but team habits during grueling stretches of games and practices often produce the animal capable of taming March Madness. Every game carries embedded drama, and the chaos is a combination of daily insanity and controlled adrenaline. Players and teams dream about cutting down nets at the end of a bracket, but the physical and emotional toll is often at its most difficult to tame because of the mania associated with an individual game.

Those moments can overwhelm players who aren't used to the rush, and BC looked lost in the opening minutes of Wednesday's game as Georgia Tech rushed out to a 7-0 run. The Eagles didn't score for the first two-plus minutes, but three consecutive layups bookended an Ally VanTimmeren three-pointer after Briana Jackson hit a three to reclaim a seven-point lead with five minutes left in the first quarter.

It steadied BC, and the ensuing anchorage to start the second quarter produced seven straight points and a separate, 6-0 run against a Yellow Jacket team that scored six points on three baskets. Four of those points came from Swartz, but after going scoreless in the first quarter, the former Eagle-turned-Yellow Jackets-leading-scorer failed to damage the scoreboard beyond a single free throw in the third quarter.

That situation was a credit to BC's defense, which played the same storyline over Jackson, who didn't score in the second quarter after posting eight points in the first, and Tonie Morgan, who had two points in the first half.

"We switched up some defenses," Bernabei-McNamee said, "and all of that takes a lot of communication. Even [Gakdeng] is a big part of that because as the center of the defense, you have to be able to talk and really call things out.

"We keep a little chart that's kind of like a lack-of-hustle chart," she explained, "but it's really when people don't communicate or box out, and we had our lowest number of the year today on that chart. I was really proud of [the team] for that. When we communicate and play together, maybe we didn't shoot the ball great from the perimeter, but we made up for it with what we did defensively."

The effort slammed the doors on Georgia Tech until the Yellow Jackets stormed back from a 13-point deficit by drawing on the postseason's raw emotion. They found their groove with the season on the line, but after getting to within three behind Jackson, Morgan and Kayla Blackshear, a Gakdeng layup with under 30 seconds remaining offered enough of a cushion to force foul shots by Dontavia Waggoner and Andrea Daley.

"I thought we were going to be able to get that thing tied up," said Georgia Tech head coach Nell Fortner, "and then it would've been anybody's ballgame. But it just didn't drop that way. I'm super proud of how we fought back, and I think it says a lot for those kids and how they continued to believe and really put their best foot forward. I just wish we could have done it a little sooner in the game."

"We worked on that [layup] a lot in practice," Gakdeng said, "just being open and making sure we're sealing off my man. I think it was something that we always worked on, so [the play to get open] just came naturally."

The layup gave Gakdeng her final two points of a perfect, 6-for-6 performance from the floor, but her 14-point, seven-rebound performance fell two points short of the team-leading night by a returning Dontavia Waggoner. Sidelined since January with an injury, the junior's first game back in the BC lineup offered 16 points and seven boards, and her three steals headlined a defensive performance that indicated how she deserved better consideration for league-wide awards.

"She really gives us that defensive spark," said Bernabei-McNamee, "and that extra person who is going to hit the boards really hard. She has that grittiness to her and that competitive drive that if there's a loose ball or a rebound that looks like a staggering rebound that nobody can get to, she's a player that can get to it. If she had been healthier this year, I think she would have been a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year."

Freshman Taina Mair, meanwhile, continued her drive through the ACC's rookies with 10 rebounds that included nine on the defensive end. Her assist numbers, already gaudy by any college metric, reached a game-high seven helpers to account for half of BC's totals, and the ball distribution allowed inside-out movement through Gakdeng in a way that kept Georgia Tech off-balance for most of the first three quarters.

In doing so, BC achieved a result that kept its season alive for at least one more night, and advancing to play sixth-seeded Miami very clearly sharpened the iron of a team constructed around the legacy of the two runs to the NCAA bubble. A new chapter emerged, and while the existing players from last year recalled the experience of playing in a postseason, the first experience of the new core's journey offered new fuel to the team's high-powered combustion engine.

"The older players have the experience of what to expect when we get to Greensboro for the tournament," Gakdeng said, "and I feel like the freshmen bring a lot of energy. They bring so much good energy, and I feel like that's what gets us going. Then obviously we have T-Mair at point guard, and she's been amazing this season. So I'm just really proud of the freshmen and how they bring [emotion] to the table even though they don't have much experience [in a postseason environment]."

With the win, BC advanced to the Second Round of the ACC Tournament for the third consecutive season, while the victory marked the second time in three years that the Eagles defeated at least one team in Greensboro. It was the first postseason win in the conference bracket since a 67-56 victory over Pittsburgh in the 2021 First Round, and it evened BC and Georgia Tech's lifetime postseason record at 1-1 after the Yellow Jackets defeated the Eagles in the 2017 first round, 71-67 in double overtime while simultaneously evening Bernabei-McNamee's postseason record at BC at 4-4.

The program won for the 10th time in the ACC Tournament, of which eight have come in the First Round, and advanced to face Miami for their second-ever matchup since realigning from the Big East. In their only other matchup, the Eagles won, 76-59, to advance to the quarterfinals in 2009.

BC and fifth-seeded Miami will tip-off on Thursday at approximately 8 p.m. with television coverage beginning at 8 p.m. The game will follow seventh-seeded North Carolina's matchup against No. 10 Clemson, while the first two games of the day feature No. 5 Florida State against No. 12 Wake Forest and the No.8-vs.No.9 matchup between NC State and Syracuse after both teams received a bye.

The full day begins at 11 a.m., and all games can be seen on the ACC Network and via ESPN's family of online sites and mobile device apps.

New Generation Grabs First Brass Ring In First Round Win

Players Mentioned

Andrea Daley

Clara Ford

Taina Mair

Taylor Soule

Cameron Swartz

Ally VanTimmeren

Dontavia Waggoner

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