Thirty-seven percent. That’s how much of Boston College women’s basketball’s season scoring sat out of its first-round Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament matchup against Villanova.
Just two weeks prior, the Eagles lost to UNC in the ACC Tournament in what BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee had thought would be their last game.
“We took maybe—what was it—11 or 12 days off of practice,” Bernabei-McNamee said. ”We just thought, you know, we were under the assumption, I guess, that if you’re under .500 that you couldn’t get any postseason play.”
Nevertheless, postseason play called. But unfortunately for the Eagles, only seven of their players answered.
Fatigue and poor offensive execution ultimately held BC (16–18, 6–12 Atlantic Coast) back, mustering just 10 fourth-quarter points and falling to Villanova (19–14, 11–7 Big East) 76–70.
Despite eventual fatigue, the Eagles started the game with guns blazing.
They jumped out to a quick 15–4 lead, thanks in large part to eight points from Teya Sidberry in the first 4:51.
Villanova didn’t allow BC to keep its momentum, though, calling a timeout and then going on an 8–0 run to cut the lead to three.
The Eagles held onto their lead the rest of the quarter, with Dontavia Waggoner, Savannah Samuel, and Sidberry all scoring to put BC up 22–17 at the end of the first.
“I think we jumped on them just because we had the energy,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “And I think that we’re a good team, like I think the players that were here, they’re good players. We just ran out of a little bit of gas, and we also had a lot of different foul trouble.”
That foul trouble became abundantly clear in the second quarter, as three of BC’s seven players had two fouls and each of the other four had one. As a result, BC had to constantly rotate players, making it difficult to build momentum and allowing the Wildcats to jump out to a 34–28 lead with 4:03 left in the half.
BC tied it by halftime and even had a chance to take the lead, but Andrea Daley missed both her free throws to keep the game tied 38–38 heading into halftime.
The third quarter was back and forth the whole way as Jasmine Bascoe stepped up offensively for Villanova. She finished with 24 points.
Meanwhile, Samuel and Waggoner helped the Eagles out in the scoring department. Villanova managed to leave the quarter up 62–60 thanks to a Bascoe jumper, and it was seemingly anyone’s game.
But that was when the fatigue kicked in.
It was evident from the first dribble of the fourth quarter that BC was not the same team it had been for the first 30 minutes.
The Wildcats extended their lead to five, and then eight, as the Eagles were unable to score a field goal until nearly six minutes into the period.
“I just thought, offensively, we looked a little disheveled, fatigue-wise,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “But, you know, I thought that we gave it our all for that last quarter.”
Finally, with 4:16 left in the game, JaKayla Thompson dropped in a layup for BC’s first field goal of the quarter. Even with her basket, the Eagles still couldn’t scrounge together any momentum.
That resulted in another 2:29 field-goal drought for BC. The Eagles’ defense remained strong, though, and they trailed by just six when they got the ball back with 1:17 remaining, thanks to a steal by Samuel.
But Waggoner couldn’t convert on her layup, allowing the Wildcats to take possession with 1:05 left. Villanova then ran 24 seconds off the clock before Maddie Webber launched a three.
Despite the miss, the Wildcats maintained possession with an offensive rebound, and rather than foul, the Eagles let them take another 20 seconds off the clock.
After the game, Bernabei-McNamee stood by her decision to abstain from fouling.
“Sometimes, I think people forget that in the women’s game, we can call timeouts and advance the ball, which is why we tried to save the two timeouts we had,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “So, you never want to start fouling too early in the women’s game because 20 seconds can create a lot more time than it feels like. So no, we intentionally didn’t foul there to try to get the ball back and cut it within two possessions.”
After a BC miss and two Villanova free throws, the Eagles scored one more meaningless basket as time expired, ending their season with a 76–70 loss.
“We’re playing on house money, in a way,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “We thought that we were done playing basketball for this year, and to get an extra game, for all of you guys that know and love basketball, you know how special that is.”
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