Boston College Basketball Defeats Maine, Moves on to WNIT Second Round

Strong defense helped Boston College defeat Maine in the first round of the WNIT tonight, taking home a 69-44 victory thanks in no small part to 32 defensive rebounds, 6 blocks, and 9 steals.

Maine jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game before Ally VanTimmeren grabbed BC’s first basket of the game. The Black Bears stayed in the lead thanks to their 3 point shooting, and led by 15-10 at the first quarter media timeout.

The Eagles defense began to heat up as the first quarter progressed, and forcing a 5 second violation on one possession followed by a shot clock violation on the second helped BC to stop Maine’s offense from building. After 10 minutes of play, the Black Bears led 18-16.

Dontavia Waggoner started the second period with a steal and a basket to tie the game up, and Maria Gakdeng followed up with a basket to give BC a 20-18 lead. From there, BC continued to score, including Kaylah Ivey hitting the Eagles’ first 3 of the game. BC continued to dominate through the period, and went into halftime leading 38-25.

The Eagles struggled to maintain that offensive streak into the third quarter, and had scored just 4 points by the media timeout at 3:44. Despite that, strong defense kept BC in the lead, and after the timeout BC began to get their offensive groove back.

The Eagles led 52-37 going into the fourth quarter, and continued to hold onto the lead as the game progressed. As the quarter wound down, Maine started to get sloppy and frustrated, which just allowed BC to keep building on the lead. Ultimately, BC won this one 69-44 behind 21 points from Taylor Soule and 8 rebounds from Dontavia Waggoner.