Led by freshman Carolyn Swords, the Boston College women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 68-63 victory at Clemson on Monday night. Swords scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds on her way to another dominating, 33-minute performance.
The Eagles clearly had the size advantage with 6-foot-6-inch Swords and 6-foot-4-inch Stephanie Murphy controlling the key. The two freshmen towered over the Tigers helping their team to score 38 of its 68 points in the paint.
It appeared as though BC was going to pull away from Clemson midway through the first half when the Eagles put a bit of a run together to go up by eight points, their largest lead of the night. Clemson's Morganne Campbell, however, halted the Eagle attack with a 3-pointer.
BC's attempts to take control of the game were constantly marred by turnovers. The Eagles gave Clemson 16 points on 29 turnovers throughout the game. BC did a good job capitalizing on Clemson's miscues, scoring 15 points as a result of the Tigers' 14 turnovers.
Many of BC's turnovers came as a result of Clemson's strong 2-3 zone defense, which caused BC to have trouble passing the ball, especially inside to Swords and Murphy.
Knowing they were overmatched as far as size was concerned, Clemson tried to beat BC with their team speed. They created a fair amount of fast-break opportunities but were only able to muster six points.
In addition to the fast break, the Tigers attempted to neutralize the Eagles offense with a full-court-press defense. At first, BC struggled to get the ball past half court. Coach Cathy Inglese, however, made a key adjustment and had Swords and Murphy take the inbound pass in the backcourt. This eased the process to some degree, but the Clemson press remained a factor throughout the contest.
The zone and the press contributed to an exciting second half. Clemson took the lead at 15:23 on a layup by Campbell, the Tigers' leading scorer. BC called timeout, and then regained the lead on a Rebecca Miles jump shot at 15:26. At 14:53, however, Lele Hardy nailed a jump shot to give Clemson the lead once again. The Tigers stayed in front until Mickel Picco sank a 3-pointer at 12:19. BC retained the lead for the duration of the game, but Clemson stayed on the Eagles' heels.
The last hope for the Tigers came when D'Lesha Lloyd sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 30 seconds remaining. Clemson executed the press fairly well, but BC was able to get the ball down court and into the hands of Swords. Swords was fouled and made both free throws with 18 seconds to go, ensuring the victory.
Despite Clemson's speed, the Eagles were just too much to handle. They dominated the boards with 43 rebounds to the Tigers' 22. They also scored 18 second-chance points, while Clemson managed just six. In addition to Swords, Ayla Brown (eight rebounds), Mickel Picco (six rebounds) and Brittanny Johnson (5 rebounds) contributed greatly to the rebounding effort.
Brown played an important role in all phases of the game, adding eight points and playing tough defense, something that has become one of her specialties. Johnson also significantly aided the BC offense with 11 points.
BC moves to 16-5 (4-2 ACC) with the victory. The Eagles are currently tied with Florida State for fourth place in the conference. They look to further improve their record when they host Miami and Duke next week at Conte Forum.
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