It’s been a rough stretch for Boston College women’s basketball, which had hoped to come out of Saturday afternoon’s game against UMass with a win to break its two-game skid.
But outside of the first quarter, the Eagles struggled to shoot and defend, allowing UMass (5–0) to get the better of BC (3–4) in Amherst.
It’s the first time the Eagles fell to the Minutewomen since Nov. 14, 2007, when they lost a nailbiter in Amherst.
Since then, they have won seven straight. Saturday’s loss marked only the fifth time BC has lost to UMass.
“We have to take care of the ball better,” said BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. “I thought we handled their press well, but then in the half court, we didn’t utilize our pass fakes, and we kind of made some, what looked like, rushed decisions with the ball defensively, and we’ve got to do better on the boards.”
The first quarter saw both teams start well. UMass quickly went up by four with a layup and two free throws from Megan Olbrys, who went 8 of 15 from the field and put up 24 points.
The Eagles slowed down a little before the half, with the Minutewomen finishing on a 6–2 run and up 32–29 before heading to the locker rooms.
“I think that our pace of play wasn’t fast enough today, in my opinion,” said Bernabei-McNamee. “I thought we slowed it down too much … something that we want to do is play with pace.”
The second half was when things fell apart for BC, particularly in the third quarter, when UMass went on an 8–0 run, and BC struggled to score for the majority of the frame.
“The third quarter was a really bad quarter for us,” said Bernabei-McNamee. “I think that we have to get more opportunities, and when we got second opportunities that they weren’t, we were turning it over … just too many turnovers for us.”
A bright spot for the team continues to be Lily Carmody’s play. She tied Teionni McDaniel for most on the team with nine points, despite getting in foul trouble that took her out early. She is one of just two players in the ACC and 15 in the nation to average at least 15.5 points per game on under 10 field goal attempts.
“Lily plays so hard,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “She got in early foul trouble today, which made her have to sit … I know one thing [about Lily]—she’s always going to give me everything she’s got when she’s playing out there, she goes hard.”
Despite Carmody and the Eagles’ efforts in the final frame, BC failed to catch UMass, ultimately finishing the game 61–52.
BC, a team that has been good with free throws all season long, only got to the line 10 times.
“They want to be good,” said Bernabei-McNamee. “Being good is really hard. It’s not easy to be a winner, so you have to really work at the things you can control. And that’s what we’re going to continue to keep getting better at.”
