BC Women Rolling With Recent Win Over BU
It doesn’t matter what day, what time, where the game is played or what the sport is, in Eagle Land, any day is a good day if BC beats BU.
The women's basketball team survived a scare from Boston University in a 90-80 victory at Conte Forum on Sunday. The Eagles are now 7-3 overall and are rolling early this season.
“If I was going to pick a big improvement for us tonight over all of our games leading up to this one, was our communication on the court,” said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee.
The offensive onslaught was a season-high 90 points for the team while also shooting 52 percent from the field. The Eagles also hit seven three pointers. Dontavia Waggoner had a career high 27 points and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. The fantastic night came with a clip of 13-of-18 from the floor and she recorded four assists and four steals as well.
Waggoner is the third BC player (Emma Guy, Taylor Soule) since 19 to post a game of at least 25 points and 10 rebounds.
JoJo Lacey also had a career-high against the Terriers with 22 points including five threes. Lacey also had five steals and three rebounds. Andrea Daley added 15 points, Taina Mair had 12 points with six rebounds, a game-high nine assists, and two steals. BU ripped it up from beyond the arc, shooting 65 percent (11-17), but a late run and sound defense down the stretch was the difference.
With the score knotted at 80 apiece, the Eagles closed things out on a 10-0 run. The game-clinching, lock down defense forced BU into missing its last three shots and forced three turnovers during the sprint to the finish. Maria Gakdeng started the game-winning run with a layup. Waggoner and Lacey scored on back-to-back possessions and Mair and Daley both helped ice the game with four free throws. BC scored 32 points in the final quarter for its highest-scoring output in any quarter so far during the young season. The Eagles dominated the day inside, with 52 of the 90 points coming in the paint.Coach Bernabei-McNamee was impressed with her team’s bounce-back ability after wrapping up time in Puerto Rico with a loss to SFA before coming back home to beat Rutgers and then BU.
“Resiliency with a young team is so important,” added Bernabei-McNamee.
“They are going to have games that don’t go their way, and that last game in Puerto Rico…it was definitely…I made a kind of scout (report) of that game, I just self-scouted that game and I just said ‘Bad News Bears vs. SFA,’ it was just not the way we normally play. Our communication was down, I thought our trust level was down. They really stepped it up. I thought this week of practice 1. Had a lot of energy, every day they brought bring time energy, and 2. I would say this (BU) game, leading into the start of the jump, it was the most energy this team has really displayed.
“I think it showed with the way we came out right from the start of the game. I’m really proud of them and I think that’s something…that energy is really contagious. If they can keep bringing that and sticking together, they’re going to be a fun team to grow with.”
BC opens up ACC play when the No. 9 team in the country, the Virginia Cavaliers, visit Comte Forum this Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 6 P.M.