Boston College women’s basketball’s energy looked low in the first quarter of its Thursday night game against Sacred Heart. Sloppy, unorganized basketball had kept BC from establishing a big lead, and the Eagles ended the quarter up 23–15.
Between the first and second quarters, there was some kind of shift.
The Eagles went on to score 34 points and hold the Pioneers to 12 points in the second quarter, allowing themselves to take a 30-point lead headed into the half.
BC (2–0) didn’t slow down in the second half, and took a 102–58 win over Sacred Heart (1–1) at home. The Eagles have now won their last two games by 74 points combined after two blowout wins, the first coming in their season-opener against Lafayette.
The Eagle’s defense was the star of the show, according to BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee.
“Defensively, they were locked in from the beginning,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “You could hear them talking from the jump in the first quarter. So I think as we continue to even get better, you know what our zone wants to look like, we’ll just continue to get better on that defensive end.”
The Eagles ended the game with 26 forced turnovers. Nine different players tallied a steal for BC, with Andrea Daley pulling in five to lead the team and Dontavia Waggoner grabbing four of her own.
Teya Sidberry began the Eagles’ dominant second quarter with a three pointer on a fast break.
“You know, I just think these guys rotate and they feed off the defense,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “When our defense is rolling, it just leads to easy offense, and I think it just gets their adrenaline flowing.”
BC shot 80 percent from beyond the arc in the second quarter and ended the game 9–14 from three.
“That just gives everybody confidence,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “The biggest thing with shooters being good, shooters, playmakers, being great playmakers is seeing the success. And I think this hopefully will give all of our shooters the confidence that we can shoot on our feet or say we’re going to make shots. But if we’re not, we’re also going to go clean it up again.”
The Eagles put together a 7-point scoring run to pull away, transforming a 27–20 lead into a 34–20 advantage. Daley was the star of the show. She ended the game with 19 points and eight rebounds while shooting 8–12 from the field.
Daley gathered a steal and took the ball in for a fastbreak layup. Without giving the Pioneers a moment to breathe, she grabbed another steal on the following play and assisted a fastbreak layup from T’yana Todd. BC ended the game with 35 fast-break points and 37 points off turnovers.
A 12–0 run, topped off by an and-one three-point play from Waggoner, put the Eagles up 46–22.
The second half was no different from the second quarter. The Eagles continued to perform defensively while maintaining their offensive production. The shot nearly 67 percent from three in the third quarter, and 50 percent from beyond the arc in the fourth.
BC gave up 19 points in the fourth—the most points they gave up in any individual quarter—but it was far too late for a Sacred Heart comeback, and BC walked away with another blowout win.
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