Cam Swartz used a Maria Gakdeng screen to reach the top of the arc. She veered left before pivoting right with a dribble through her legs. Then she shot past North Carolina State’s Kayla Jones and got to the rim for a layup that brought Boston College women’s basketball within one point of the No. 5 Wolfpack.

With 13 seconds left.

BC fouled, but N.C. State center Elissa Cunane went just 1-of-2 at the free throw line, giving the Eagles a chance to force overtime or win their first game over a top-five opponent since Jan. 23, 1999.

Freshman forward Ally VanTimmeren cut at the right time, and senior guard Marnelle Garraud dialed up the perfect pass in traffic. The feed hit VanTimmeren in the hands, and she laid it in to tie the game.

“Our reaction to get the game into overtime was almost like we had won the game,” fourth-year head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said of the Eagles, who hadn’t played an overtime game since 2018-19. “There's still five minutes left to play in the game. I think that's a team that maybe hasn't been there yet.”

N.C. State, on the other hand, had been there. One of the Wolfpack’s three losses this season came in overtime: an 82-80 defeat versus then-No. 17 Georgia. N.C. State learned from that.

The Wolfpack used a 9-0 run in the extra frame Thursday night to escape a passionate Conte Forum crowd with an 85-78 victory, preserving its status as a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles (15-9, 6-7 ACC) stormed out to a 13-2 lead, in large part thanks to seven of Swartz’s 18 first-half points.

“When things are flowing like that, it’s not just yourself, but it’s also with the team,” Swartz said. “Like the flow of everything. And I feel like our team very much feeds off each other.”

BC, aided by 3-pointers from Swartz and VanTimmerern, kept its foot on the gas and rounded out the first quarter with a 23-12 lead.

As has often been the case this season, however, the second period was a letdown for the Eagles. While they maintained a double-digit advantage through the midway point of the quarter, they ended up committing five turnovers and shooting just 5-of-13 in the frame.

N.C. State (22-3, 13-1) closed the half on a 14-3 run. The only BC points in that span were scored by Swartz, who was 7-of-10 from the field in the opening two quarters. Kayla Jones, a 6-foot-1 graduate forward who finished with 17 points and nine offensive rebounds, was key for the Wolfpack down the stretch of that swing. She logged five points and drew a pair of charges.

Jones’ success on the offensive glass was infectious. The Wolfpack piled up 20 rebounds on that end of the floor, which resulted in 12 second-chance points. Bernabei-McNamee said BC needed to block out better, especially against a team like N.C. State that’s far too talented not to make its opponent pay.

The Eagles clung to a 35-32 lead at intermission. From that point forward, a game that featured 13 lead changes and six ties in regulation was nothing short of a roller coaster.

Graduate guard Raina Perez delivered N.C. State its first lead of the game early in the third quarter with a floater that followed a Kai Crutchfield stepback 3-pointer.

BC reclaimed its advantage soon after, though, courtesy of outside shots from VanTimmeren and Kaylah Ivey. And, eventually, Taylor Soule countered a 7-0 Wolfpack surge with back-to-back layups: the first on a putback, the second part of an old-fashioned 3-point play.

Ivey ended the quarter with a 3-pointer, lifting the Eagles to a 51-50 lead.

“I thought she played a spectacular game,” Bernabei-McNamee said of her sophomore guard. “Poised. I mean you see her stat line. Didn't have turnovers. Two steals, two assists. Just really handled the pressure well.”

A five-point shift occurred in the infancy of the fourth quarter. Diamond Johnson finished a layup through Swartz’s fourth foul—which sidelined her for a good bit of the final frame​​—and, although Johnson missed her subsequent free throw, an N.C. State offensive rebound led to a Cunane and-one.

Except, a Garraud 3-pointer put BC back on top, 58-57. As the teams traded buckets and the clock ticked, N.C. State turned to the press. The Eagles handled it fine but couldn’t get shots to fall on back-to-back possessions, while Perez sank a floater and then found Crutchfield on a backdoor cut for two more.

That’s when BC made its overtime push, orchestrated by Swartz, Garraud and VanTimmeren.

The Eagles started the extra frame on the right foot. Two Makayla Dickens free throws and a Swartz jumper kept BC in control. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they wouldn’t make another field goal until the final seconds of overtime, at which point the game was already decided.

N.C. State’s 9-0 run was a gut-wrenching punch to BC as well as the 2,547 fans—including a relatively sizable student section—in attendance.

The loss went down as the Eagles’ fourth defeat in their last five games. They’re a bubble team that’s proven its ability to bury the league’s bottom dwellers and come oh so close to taking down one of the conference’s titans. But, at this point, there isn’t much leeway if the Eagles are to go dancing in March.

“Right now, we’re at the cusp of the season where we have to take care of business for the rest of February,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “It’s vitally important that we take one game at a time.”