Boston College women’s basketball head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee has often commented on her team being undersized.
On Sunday afternoon, ACC opponent Virginia capitalized on that size disadvantage, outscoring BC 42–18 in the paint. The Eagles’ offensive unit also faltered, shooting 19 of 64 from the field as the Cavaliers (7–3, 1–0 Atlantic Coast) blocked nine shots.
“I think the size differential probably played a little bit of a part in that,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I thought we got a lot of good shots. And you look at the stat sheet, we shot three more times—offensively, we got three more shots off. [They] just didn’t go in.”
BC’s 30-percent shooting from the field and 19-percent shooting from three, combined with Virginia’s defensive dominance, ultimately led to an 81–55 loss for the Eagles (4–8, 0–1).
Virginia guard Paris Clark led the Cavaliers with five makes in the paint. She ended with 13 points on 60-percent shooting.
“Those points in the paint—some of it was the way we were trying to zone-up because, of course, they have some really good guard play as well,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “We have to be just a little bit quicker guard-wise, [getting] to that double on the inside to make sure the post has to kick it out. And then, our post players have to work a little bit harder initially.”
After scoring no points in BC’s loss to Quinnipiac, Athena Tomlinson led the Eagles with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Redshirt senior Erin Houpt poured in 12 points for BC, matching her season-high in scoring.
Meanwhile, BC’s second-leading scorer Teionni McDaniel went 2 of 12 from the field and finished with six points.
“[McDaniel] had a cold that she’s been getting over,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I know our offensive game didn’t look as sharp as she wanted it to be, or I wanted to be, but I thought that she didn’t let that boil into how hard she played on the defensive end.”
Virginia scored 14 points in the second quarter and turned the ball over eight times. BC could not turn those into points, however, and scored just eight points in the quarter. It was 40–21 Virginia at halftime.
“I think that we were outsized, and so we still got scored on a lot—and too much, right,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “At least they had to work for those paint shots.”
BC recorded its two highest-scoring quarters in the second half, putting up 34 points compared to just 21 in the first half. But inefficient shooting numbers and defensive struggles allowed Virginia to maintain the dominant lead with which it ended the first half.
The Cavaliers put up a 22-point third quarter and led BC 62–35 heading into the final period.
“Ultimately, we need to convert more on the offensive end,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “I think this team can and will. We’ve just got to see the ball go in more than—what was our percentage from the floor? It was bad. I mean, you can’t really beat many teams shooting 30 percent from the floor.”
Even with 17 second-chance points, BC struggled to keep up as Virginia’s bench outscored BC’s 42–20.
“We just didn’t convert on shots today,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “That was our Achilles’ heel. Like I said, we grabbed some really good offensive boards. We turned them over, I think 16 times. So we did things that we needed to do to get shots at the basket, but then we just didn’t make the shots.”