Kaylah Ivey’s steal with 53 seconds remaining in Boston College women’s basketball’s game against Miami only accounted for one of the 45 turnovers committed by both teams, but it might have been the one that most heavily impacted the result. It halted a Miami possession in which Miami had a chance to tie BC.
The Hurricanes, who forced 25 turnovers in the evening, also committed 20 of their own which inhibited any steady stream of momentum that they might have had.
The Eagles (9–6, 1–1 Atlantic Coast) defeated Miami (10–3, 0–2) by a score of 70–64 in a tough game between two teams that fought hard. The Eagles were led by 17 points from Andrea Daley and 16 from Teya Sidberry.
“It was exciting,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “It was a really good team win. These ladies played so, so hard and played together and through some adversity of maybe missing some shots they wanted to make and having some turnovers that were a little bit uncharacteristic of us, they still stuck together and played a great team basketball game.”
The Eagles started off on a 7–0 run and looked like they were going to put Miami in a deep hole and take control of the game to start the first half. But Miami got a big momentum swing after Shaeyann Day-Wilson stole the ball from Andrea Daley and hit a layup to score Miami’s first points of the game 3:35 in.
The Hurricanes would eventually take the lead late in the quarter, but Ivey hit a shot from about 25 feet with two seconds left to give BC a 14–12 lead after one quarter.
Turnovers were the story for BC in that first quarter, coughing the ball up 11 times in the first ten minutes, stopping them from sustaining any momentum and building up a bigger advantage.
“Probably a little bit of everything right?” Bernabei-McNamee said of the turnovers. “They had really good ball pressure on us all game, and they’re pretty relentless, Miami is, with their defense. And then sometimes we saw something that we wanted to make happen, maybe want to go make it happen before the ball was actually in our hands or didn’t mean to pass.”
The second frame followed the opposite story of the first. It was Miami who jumped out to a lead, with their advantage reaching seven points multiple times in the quarter, but BC went on a run to tie up the game at 35 apiece going into halftime.
Daley had a monster start to the third quarter that set the tone for BC. After a Kyla Oldacre layup gave Miami the lead to start the frame, Daley went on a personal 8–0 run on three straight possessions. She started with a layup then knocked down back-to-back threes to give BC a 43–37 lead with 8:19 left in the quarter.
“I feel like KI especially gives me the ball where, you know, where I feel like I can score,” Daley said. “I feel like kind of like all of my teammates that kind of pass me the ball where they know I can be effective, and I just kind of capitalize on that.”
Miami went on a run of their own to take the lead 46-45 which started with a strong and-one layup by Jasmyne Roberts, but Daley responded with an and-one of her own to retake the lead.
BC came out firing from three in the fourth quarter, extending their lead with a trifecta of three balls, two from T’yana Todd and one from Sidberry. Miami clawed back to get the eight-point deficit down to three, but the strong defensive play by Ivey alongside Todd and Sidberry making 3-of-4 free throws in the final seconds delivered the Eagles a six-point victory despite their turnover woes.
“I think this game is something now we can build on because now I thought we stuck to our standards for the majority of the game defensively,” Bernabei-McNamee said.
