Tatum Greene positioned herself just right, dove hard into the lane, and stole the pass from Lafayette. She put the ball out in front of her, sprinted up the floor, and jump-stopped right under the basket.
Greene’s layup put Boston College women’s basketball up 56–42 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter of its season-opening matchup against Lafayette. Lafayette immediately called a timeout, and the Eagles stayed in control from that point on, completing a 16–0 run before the quarter ended.
BC (1–0) went home with an 85–55 win over the Leopards (0–1) to start off its season. But a 30-point victory margin doesn’t quite describe the whole story of what happened on Monday night in Conte Forum.
“I thought the second half was just really who we are and who we want to be,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said.
The Eagles were on pace for a 36-point game at the end of the first quarter, having put up nine points on a 4–17 shooting performance. They grabbed two offensive boards in the first minute of the game, but both yielded no points.
Fifth-year player Kennedi Jackson, who started in her first game for BC, came down with the ball after Andrea Daley missed a layup eight seconds into the game. But Jackson missed the putback, and Lafayette took over possession.
Shortly after, Dontavia Waggoner grabbed T’yana Todd’s miss off the glass and was fouled going back up. But she missed both of her resulting free throws to keep BC scoreless.
“Nothing in the first half was lack of effort,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “It was just almost overdoing. So I think once they calmed down, once they settled into the fact that they’re a good team, they can move the ball and nobody has to just play one-on-one.”
The Eagles didn’t pick up their first points of the game until 2:22 in, when Daley hit a turnaround jumper over her defender. Daley also assisted BC’s next bucket—a layup from Jackson.
The Eagles trailed 14–9 at the end of the quarter, and that was before Lafayette’s Abby Antognoli had made her presence known. She rattled off 11 points in the second quarter, including three makes from behind the arc that helped keep the game within reach for Lafayette.
“I think early on, we just had to find our groove,” Bernabei-McNamee said.
The Eagles—led by Jackson’s 10 points and seven rebounds—maintained a 34–29 lead into the half. Jackson finished the game with 20 points shooting 10–16 from the floor.
Halfway through the third quarter, the back-and-forth battle quickly turned into a one-team show.
The Eagles went into a full-court press which they had been going in and out of all game, but became especially effective in the third quarter. BC collected 13 steals in the game, scoring 29 points off turnovers and forcing the Leopards into several 10-second violations.
Talia Zurinskas managed a layup five minutes into the quarter, but that was the last time Lafayette scored for a while. All the pieces started to click for the Eagles.
T’yana Todd scored eight points and sank two 3-pointers, helping the Eagles go on a 16–0 run that ended in a 64–42 lead. They shot 55 percent from the field and 50 percent from three in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was equally as dominant. Kaylah Ivey made two 3-pointers less than a minute apart at the beginning of the period, then assisted baskets for Jackson and Waggoner. Ivey finished the game with a near triple-double, posting 15 points and nine assists.
“Going into this week, we got a game coming up,” Todd said. “So I think it’s gonna roll over into everything.”
Bernabei-McNamee pulled the starters with about five minutes remaining, and the Eagles’ first game of the season ended in a blowout win.
“When you have a home opener, you have to make sure you put your foot on the gas and you don’t let up,” Bernabei-McNamee said.
