After playing only its second ACC matchup of the season just five days ago, Boston College women’s basketball closes out its season with all ACC clashes.
This also includes three straight games of ranked opponents—starting with No. 14 Duke.
And it wasn’t the statement win head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee and her team hoped for.
After tallying just 19 points in the first half, BC (10–6, 1–2 Atlantic Coast) built too big of a hole and eventually fell 86–59 to No. 14 Duke (11–3, 2–0).
A fairly even second half proved the Eagles’ ability to compete offensively with teams. But that didn’t matter, as their second quarter stuck out like a sore thumb.
A mere layup from Andrea Daley stood as the lone points in BC’s second frame—the team went 1 for 9 from the field and totaled 17 turnovers.
But Dontavia Waggoner stayed hot and put together a 20-point performance, including nine of BC’s 17 points in the first quarter.
“[Dontavia] is a player that’s really competitive and she’s going to step up to the challenge,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “Everybody’s going to keep working so the rest of our team can really step up to those challenges.”
The Eagles found themselves at a six-point deficit after the first frame ended, and after the lopsided second quarter, Duke had a 23-point lead at halftime.
Despite still ending up with an 18-point deficit at the end of the third quarter, they outscored the Blue Devils by five points.
“I don’t think any of our players come into any game thinking we’re not going to give it everything,” Bernabei-McNamee said of the fight from her team.
Although Waggoner was the only Eagle with double-digit points, BC had only four fewer points in the second half—the shooting stayed stagnant, though.
After shooting 33.3 percent in the first half, BC paired it with 35.3 percent shooting in the second half. The offense hasn’t seemed to be an issue in its recent non-conference games or even in its last loss versus Louisville, where they shot 48 percent from the field.
The Eagles’ sloppiness on the ball has raised concerns, though, throwing away 52 turnovers in their last two games, including a season-high 29 turnovers last night.
Even in an aspect where BC should have dominated, it only out-rebounded Duke—second to last in the ACC for rebounds—by one.
“Just too many turnovers, and in the first half, we gave them too many offensive rebounds,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I don’t think we ran our offense with poise to get the shots we wanted.”
BC forces the most turnovers in the ACC, as well, but the Blue Devils took better advantage of the Eagles’ mistakes with 22 points off their turnovers.
“We’ve got to learn what we can take away, both positive and negative from this game,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “And then apply the things that are similar between Duke and [NC State] and really just now focus on the next game.”
Leave a Reply