If Tuesday night’s game was a final exam, Boston College women’s basketball would not have received a passing grade.
The Eagles (4–9, 0–1 Atlantic Coast) fell to Bryant (8–3) 80–71 to extend their losing streak to five games. Lily Carmody led the way for BC with 15 points, while Kayla Rolph added on 13 points and three 3-pointers on 50 percent shooting from deep.
Turnovers were the killer for BC’s hopes of ending the semester with a win as the Eagles lost the ball 22 times. Bryant turned those turnovers into 23 points.
“That was really, really frustrating,” BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. “Our ball movement has to be crisper … We got to be sharper on offense and sharper with the way we play.”
Bryant came into the game as a top-20 team in the country in 3-point percentage, and showed why early and often during the matchup. The Bulldogs shot 38.1 percent from three, right on par with their average as two players—Mia Mancini and Mimi Rubino—each shot 4-for-9 from deep.
“We lacked the intensity to really force them to be uncomfortable and take uncomfortable shots,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “As a coach, I was very disappointed in our lack of intensity through the first three quarters.”
Efficiency was the key word for Bryant’s offense in the first quarter. The Bulldogs were 7-of-11 from the field and racked up assists on all seven of their made field goals.
BC was the exact opposite, as the Eagles shot 26 percent from the field and made no threes, sending them into the second quarter down 18–11 .
For most of the second quarter, it looked like it would be more of the same. BC was able to get the lead down to as little as three early on, but Bryant’s offense found a response every single time it got close.
Finally, the Eagles were able to maintain a run due to the efforts of Erin Houpt and Kayla Rolph. Rolph sandwiched a layup in between a pair of Houpt 3-pointers to end the second quarter on an 8–1 run, making the score 32–29 at the break.
BC looked to be turning things around to start the third quarter, scoring the first four points of the period to go up 33–32 for its first lead of the game. But once again, Bryant responded. A Mancini layup kicked off a 13–0 run for the Bulldogs that gave them their largest lead of the game at 45–33.
A Lily Carmody layup finally stopped the bleeding for the Eagles. She scored eight points in the quarter, but the damage had been done. The Eagles’ turnovers, paired with their failure to get stops on the defensive end, allowed Bryant to take a 57–43 lead going into the fourth.
But BC would not go down without a fight. Carmody and Rolph continued their hot play during the final period, getting the lead down to 63–52 and forcing a timeout from the Bulldogs. With 3:35 left in the game, a layup from Jocelyn Grier put the Eagles down just nine points, their first time being within ten since the halfway point of the third.
Unfortunately, it was too little, too late for BC. The intensity held up, but that was as close as BC got. Bryan converted enough of its free throws down the stretch to keep the Eagles at an arms length and the game came to a close at 80–71.
“None of us are happy with our performance today,” Bernabei-McNamee said, “We know we’ve got a lot to improve on before we represent Boston College again.”