Just hours after a dominant win over Massachusetts-rival Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon, Boston College women’s basketball hopped on a late-night flight to Nassau, Bahamas. On Sunday, the Eagles had their first practice on the island before even checking into the hotel.
Spirits seemed high for the Eagles (6–2) as they were coming off their best shooting performance of the young season, plus a near30-point win against Holy Cross.
Going into Monday night’s game against No. 18 Ole Miss (4–1), BC looked to earn its first win in its first game against a ranked opponent this season.
Thirty-two seconds into the opening quarter, BC guard Andrea Daley was fouled while going up for a layup. After her first free throw clanked off the rim, she drained the second, giving the Eagles an early 1–0 lead.
That was BC’s first and last lead of the game.
What followed was 39 minutes of offensive dominance from the Rebels. Despite only converting four of their 17 deep balls, the Rebels closed out the Eagles by a score of 92–55, with 50 of their points coming inside the paint.
“They made some good shots, they’re a good team,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “But I think where we could control that outcome a little more was on the rebounding front.”
Ole Miss out-rebounded BC 45–24 in the blowout. Over half of those rebounds came on the offensive side of the ball, which led to 23 second-chance points for the Rebels.
“They got every offensive rebound,” said Dontavia Waggoner, who led the Eagles in scoring with 13 points. “They were crashing hard when we were boxing them out, and they were getting second and third chance shots.”
If the Eagles’ rebounding woes hadn’t already sealed the contest in favor of the Rebels, BC’s poor shooting performance confirmed its fate.
BC shot 37 percent from the floor, including a 2–7 performance from 3-point range. Teya Sidberry, who led the Eagles in scoring against Holy Cross, struggled and scored just 6 points on 2–9 shooting.
The Eagles also committed 20 turnovers in the loss. The Rebels converted BC’s turnovers into 29 points, with 13 points off fast breaks.
The Rebels struggled from the free throw line, shooting 60 percent on 12–20. But Ole Miss had five players that scored double-digits and they racked up 10 steals—two factors that helped the Rebels easily overcome their mediocre performance from the stripe.
“It exposed a lot of what we need to work on,” said Waggoner. “We can’t let what just happened happen again.”
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