Boston College women’s basketball found itself in a potentially do-or-die situation Thursday night in Conte Forum. The tourney-hopeful Eagles were trailing Virginia—the only ACC team without a league win—by nine at intermission having just suffered back-to-back double-digit defeats to ranked opponents.

“It was just a conundrum of bad decisions on top of bad shots on top of defense was just OK,” fourth-year Eagles head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “We didn’t necessarily stick to exactly the game plan of what we wanted to do in the [scouting report].”

She didn’t have to tell her team that, though.

Before she could even launch into her halftime message, she said she could hear her players—a handful of whom sniffed the NCAA Tournament two years ago—voicing the same concerns she had.

They were doing the coaching.

“At halftime, a switch flipped,” said Maria Gakdeng, BC’s breakout freshman center who piled up six points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in the second half. “We realized that even though this wasn’t an amazing team, they were still playing more gritty than us.”

Gakdeng continued: “We just had to realize that we have to step up because, at the end of the day, we still play in the ACC, and it’s anybody’s game.”

BC brought the intensity in the third quarter, scoring a combined 13 points off turnovers and offensive rebounds, triggering a game-defining 24-7 run. The Eagles held strong in the fourth quarter and secured a bounce-back 65-57 victory.

The Eagles (15-7, 6-5 ACC) were outworked in the first quarter. UVA (3-16, 0-9) outrebounded them, 19-6, and dictated the speed of the game. The Cavaliers average just 52.7 points per game and rank 254th nationally in pace, according to HerHoopStats.com. They slowed a normally high-octane BC down and gradually staked themselves to a 13-6 advantage.

Kaydan Lawson fueled UVA’s offense. The sophomore guard, who had a career-high 14 points before the end of the second frame, registered half her total in the span of 2:14: The surge started with a 3-pointer, which was soon followed by a mid-range jumper and a layup that saw her use a screen to bend around BC guard Marnelle Garraud.

Lawson scored five of the Cavaliers’ first seven points of the second quarter. That stretch included a layup where she blew by BC guard Cam Swartz and finished at the rim around forward Ally VanTimmeren.

Makayla Dickens cut the Eagles’ deficit to 22-16 with a 3-pointer, but Mckenna Dale answered with a triple of her own. It was the first of three 3-pointers for the graduate student who is averaging a smidge over two points per game this season.

Dale hit from deep later in the period to extend UVA’s lead to 32-20. Thanks to five consecutive points from Swartz, BC got back within single digits before halftime. Still, seven of BC’s 15 points in the quarter came at the free throw line. The Eagles made a home for themselves at the charity stripe during what Bernabei-McNamee called “one of those really ugly games on both ends.”

But BC was shooting 6-of-28, or 21.4%, from the field. The Eagles needed a spark.

And they got it: a 10-0 run.

Taylor Soule knocked down a mid-range jumper. Then she flung a pass to Garraud, who cashed in from 3-point land. Gakdeng scored down low, and Dickens dribbled into a trey from the top of the arc. Suddenly, BC was ahead, 35-34.

“Any time we go on a run, for me, as a coach, that’s what I feel: relief,” Bernabei-McNamee said.

Penn grad transfer Eleah Parker momentarily reclaimed the Cavaliers’ lead, however, the momentum had shifted. BC held UVA to five points over the final 5:46 of the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Eagles stacked free throws, and Swartz—who finished with a game-high 18 points—registered a Euro step and-one.

Led by Parker, the Cavaliers kicked off the final frame with a 7-2 run to make it a 51-48 game. Except Garraud and Swartz quickly restored BC’s cushion with back-to-back 3-pointers.

From there, the Eagles closed out the game at the free throw line, where they were 28-of-39, and on the defensive end, where they limited UVA to 34.5% shooting in the second half.

It wasn’t pretty, but BC got the job done and improved to 11-2 at home.

“For us to play not our best, if anything, for us to say, ‘Boy, that was a bad game,’ and still come out with an ACC win,” Bernabei-McNamee said.

“I think that’s a lot of growth for our program.”