Boston College women’s basketball suffered its biggest setback of the season last week, falling to No. 3 Louisville by 30 points. The Eagles dropped to 0-2 in ACC play, but they’re still 9-4 overall, and, if it wasn’t for a fourth quarter collapse against then-No. 25 North Carolina, they’d be sitting at 10 wins.
They got an opportunity to right the ship on New Year’s Day when New Hampshire visited Conte Forum, and they capitalized with an 88-52 whooping of the Wildcats.
Before BC resumes ACC competition Thursday against Syracuse, Eagle Action will review nine key stats about the Eagles’ first two months of the 2021-22 campaign.
74.5: points per game BC is averaging. The Eagles’ offense is back to its high-octane ways. After dipping to 68.2 points per game last season, BC is hovering above the 73-point mark for the third time in head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee’s four-year tenure. The Eagles are 63rd nationally in pace, according to HerHoopStats.
18.7: turnovers per game BC is committing. That’s the third most of any Eagles team in the last decade, and it’s an average of 2.8 more than last season. BC coughed up the rock 29 times while blowing its lead against UNC and 21 times in its embarrassing defeat at Louisville. In wins, the Eagles are turning the ball over 16.3 times per game. On the other hand, they’re committing 24 turnovers per game in losses.
17.7: assist per game BC is averaging. While the Eagles have been careless with the ball at times, they are sharing it, too. They rank 16th nationally in assists per game. They haven’t cracked the top 20 in that category since 2010-11, according to HerHoopStats. That’s the last time BC reached a postseason tournament (made it to the WNIT Sixteen in the second-to-last year of Sylvia Crawley’s tenure).
31.2: BC’s 3-point shooting percentage. It’s the lowest clip Bernabei-McNamee’s squads have posted since she arrived in Chestnut Hill. And surprisingly so, given the Eagles returned a host of marksmen. But the Eagles are also less dependent on the outside shot this season, which bodes well for offensive sustainability during the conference slate. Triples account for 22.3% of BC’s scoring output, per HerHoopStats. Last year, they were responsible for 30.8% of the Eagles’ points.
4.3: The Eagles’ rebounding margin. BC is averaging 36.8 boards per game, whereas its opponents are coming down with 32.5 rebounds per game. For the fourth year in a row, BC ranks in the top 65 in offensive rebound percentage (36% this year, good for 64th). To put that in perspective, in the six years before Bernabei-McNamee took over, the Eagles didn’t place higher than 243rd in that area. Still, BC’s rebounding margin is 12th in the ACC.
16.3: points per game averaged by team-leading scorer Taylor Soule. The senior forward has eclipsed the 20-point mark since times this year. As a first-team All-ACC honoree last season, she finished seventh in the league in scoring (15.7 points per game). She’s alone atop the conference in field goal percentage (61.5%) in 2021-22. Soule is also averaging 4.6 boards per game.
32: steals by Marnelle Garraud this season, tied for the second most in the ACC. The senior guard has been on her A-game defensively. And she’s a big reason why the Eagles are fifth in the league in steals per game (9.62). Additionally, Garraud is sixth in the league in assists per game (4.08) and leads the team in 3-point shooting (37.3%).
21: blocks piled up by freshman center Maria Gakdeng. The 6-foot-3 Lanham, Maryland, native is averaging 1.62 rejections per game, which is tied for third in the ACC. Not only that, but Gakdeng is BC’s top rebounder right now (5.5 boards per game). And she averages 8.7 points per contest.
15.3: points per game averaged by senior guard Cam Swartz over the last seven outings. After somewhat of a slow start, Swartz has found a bit of a rhythm, scoring 20-plus points in three of four games from Dec. 2 to Dec. 19. She still has her off days, though, like when she went 1-of-11 from the floor at Louisville.
