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It took the Eagles a bit off time to shake the dust off in today’s season opener against UNH, but once BC got going the Wildcats couldn’t keep up. The Eagles won this won 80-44 to take a decisive 1-0 start to the season.
The teams traded points back at for for the first few minutes of play, with UNH holding a 6-5 lead 2.5 minutes into the game. But BC went on to score 15 more points in the first quarter while limiting UNH to just 4 points, and they didn’t look back from there.
The Eagles took a 43-27 lead into halftime and limited the Wildcats to just 4 points in the third quarter. UNH’s 12 fourth quarter points weren’t anywhere near enough to stage any sort of comeback against the offensively booming Eagles.
In addition to outscoring the Wildcats, BC had the edge in rebounds (50-40), assists (13-6), blocks (6-2), steals (14-6), and points off turnovers (24-8). The lone negative in the game for BC was that Cameron Swartz, who had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks and seems to have elevated her defensive play to an even stronger and more aggressive level than we saw last year, left the game with minutes to go with an apparent lower body injury. This is a huge blow both because of Swartz’s skill level and because BC is already missing JoJo Lacey due to injury.
On an individual level, Taylor Soule led all players (as usual) with 22 points and 12 rebounds, starting the season off with a double-double. Clara Ford, who saw increased playing time as BC looks to replace Emma Guy, added a career high 12 points and added 7 rebounds. Makayla Dickens and Akunna Konkwo also scored in the double digits, with 14 and 10 points respectively.
The Eagles return to action on Sunday as UMass comes to The Heights.