It’s not often redemption is handed to you in a span of two days. Especially not when the latter game ends up being in the postseason.
But it’s commonly said it’s hard to beat the same team twice. Well, Boston College women’s basketball ended 1–1 versus Syracuse after the regular season, throwing this game up in the air from the beginning.
A sluggish start on Sunday put BC down 25 points entering halftime in its 82–57 loss to the Orange, and the Eagles had previously slaughtered Syracuse 92–51 in January.
And the first half on Wednesday afternoon began with a common theme BC has encountered often this season: that same sluggish start.
But the survive-and-advance gears may have started churning for the Eagles.
Faced with a 17-point deficit at half, BC (16–16, 7–12 Atlantic Coast) ran away with a 76–73 over Syracuse (12–18, 6–13) in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
“I think that because we just had all of that very bitter taste in our mouth from the last time we played on Sunday,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “It kind of, I think, fueled us to where there was no doubt. I didn’t have to go in at halftime and fire anybody up.”
The Eagles had only shot 37.5 percent for 28 points at halftime. Meanwhile, the Orange continued to dismantle BC’s offense on 55.6 percent from behind the arc and 15 second chance points to BC’s zero points.
“The first half, we looked disheveled,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I thought we looked like we weren’t seeing the open person, and they’re really an unselfish team, but we didn’t look like that in the first half.”
Dontavia Waggoner stampeded through the Orange on a fast-break layup off a turnover to begin the second half scoring 1:18 into the third quarter.
“She was going to refuse to lose because this is her last go-around,” Bernabei-McNamee said about Waggoner. “She stayed at Boston College, she stuck it out with us, and she wants to be a difference maker.”
What followed was a pesty BC offense that was not going to allow this deficit to slip away again.
Although never retaining the lead in the third quarter, the Eagles kicked off the second half on a 14–1 run in the first five minutes.
“At the beginning, as what we said, we looked like it was pickup basketball, like we were just running and running,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “In the second half, we kind of settled down and ran some offense, but, you know, that’s a credit to the players.”
BC matched its first half total in the third frame alone with 28 points, led by 10 points each from Waggoner and Teya Sidberry.
And those two players would never go away.
Sidberry’s turnaround jumper at 8:10 in the fourth quarter put the game at knot for the first time since 2–2 in the first. A 6–0 run rattled off by Syracuse, though, quickly put the Eagles back in a hole.
That was until Jakayla Thompson’s lead-taking jumper with 1:27 left, the upperclassmen frontcourt had scored all of BC’s fourth quarter points to keep things tight down the stretch.
“For me, I feel like we’re supposed to be here,” Thompson said. “Like a lot of people counted us out, and when you count us out, it just gives us more energy to want to go out there and play hard every day.”
Waggoner posted a season-high 32 points paired with nine rebounds. Sidberry finished at 24 points along with a season-high herself of 17 rebounds.
Sidberry’s free throws with four seconds remaining sealed the deal, as the Eagles got their desperately-coveted redemption and will live to see another day.
“This team was just waiting for their adrenaline to get going,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “And you know, I hope tomorrow we start out the game with our adrenaline already flowing.”
Leave a Reply