Strong First Quarter Not Enough to Lead Boston College Women’s Basketball Past FSU

Despite a dominant first quarter, the Eagles lost to FSU by a score of 66-58.

The Eagles won the tip-off and scored on their first possession of the game, going up 2-0 on a Taylor Soule to Maria Gakdeng basket. Gakdeng followed her first basket up with a 2-and-1 and then another 2 to put BC up 7-1 early. The Eagles stayed in control, particularly on the boards, getting lots of offensive rebounds and ending the first quarter up 15-9 behind 7 points and 5 rebounds from Gakdeng.

Before the halfway point of the second quarter, 4 separate Eagles racked up 2 personal fouls each, and BC had to start sitting the starters to save them for the second half. This led to FSU going on a 7-0 run to lead into the second quarter media timeout, getting within 1 point of BC at 19-18.

Clara Ford broke BC’s scoreless streak with a pair of free throws after the media time out, but FSU kept the Eagles from hitting a basket and ended up taking the lead for the first time in the game with just over 2 minutes to go in the half. The Eagles ended up going into halftime down by 1 point at 26-25.

BC continued to struggle to hit shots to start the third quarter, as Cam Swartz stayed cold and FSU continued to block chances. The Eagles got to within 2 points of FSU on a couple of occasions, but couldn’t pull through to regain the lead and entered the fourth quarter down 46-40.

The Eagles weren’t able to break through early in the fourth either, despite the fact that Swartz had found her rhythm by this point, and late fouls stretched FSU’s lead out enough to make a comeback impossible. This is a big loss for BC, as the Eagles have been right on the bubble of NCAA Tournament contention.