With 5:38 left in the third quarter of Boston College women’s basketball’s game against Wake Forest, Raegyn Conley lobbed a pass to Malaya Cowles in the paint. Cowles had established a strong seal on Andrea Daley and had no one between her and the basket. Cowles pivoted and gently banked in a layup.
That became a pattern throughout the game, as Wake Forest dominated paint scoring and did not slow down.
Cowles and Wake Forest (8–12, 1–8 Atlantic Coast) had no ACC wins before Sunday afternoon, and it had been over a month since its last win. By leveraging the poor paint defense of BC (12–10, 3–6), the Demon Deacons controlled the game and earned their first ACC win, defeating the Eagles 69–59.
The Demon Deacons’ approach started with Rylie Theuerkauf, who ended the game with a career-high 21 points. Theuerkauf achieved most of her scoring by attacking the basket, helping Wake Forest score 34 points in the paint.
Theuerkauf scored her last points with 7:11 remaining in the fourth quarter as she used a screen to get space on the wing and swished a 3-pointer.
“[Theuerkauf is] a really good player, and I think once we missed some defense assignments early with her, then she got hot,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “We just let her get hot early by not closing out with a hand in her pocket and being aggressive early.”
BC, meanwhile, was unable to get its key scorers involved. T’yana Todd’s first points came with 6:42 on the clock in the third quarter. Teya Sidberry had no rebounds nor assists and only one bucket, which she scored in the first quarter.
The Eagles hung around with efficient three-point shooting. With 3:35 remaining in the second quarter, Savannah Samuel brought the Eagles within four points, but the Eagles couldn’t cut the deficit any more than that. Even with productive 8-of-16 shooting from three as a team, the Eagles were outscored the rest of the way.
Cowles and Demeara Hinds scored 12 points each as they dismantled the Eagles in the paint.
“I thought we did a poor job cutting off those duck-ins and letting them face-cut us,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I also thought we did a poor job, like dancing, like getting in help, but then also sprinting out to cover the shooter.”
Cowles’ defense resulted in three blocks and five steals, thanks to two first-quarter blocks on Todd and then a block on Dontavia Waggoner late in the game.
BC turned the ball over 20 times in the loss.
“That was very embarrassing,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “We just weren’t taking care of the ball. We were fumbling it—50-50 balls we weren’t securing, and gripping and holding on to them—and Wake Forest just out-hustled us in that category. And that embarrasses us all, and our players don’t want to be those players.”
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