The women’s basketball team hosted the Syracuse Orange this past Sunday afternoon, making it the 44th meeting between the two teams and the first one since 2005.
The Eagles were hoping to shake off an 82-61 loss against No. 2 Notre Dame last Thursday night and were coming into the game at less than full force without senior guard Kristen Doherty, due to her concussion symptoms.
“Not having Kristen in the game today put us in a difficult position,” said head coach Erik Johnson. “But we are a team and it all comes down to who’s next in line.”
As the Eagles took to the court, supporting breast cancer research by sporting all pink jerseys, the opening minutes of the game was rough as BC went down, 9-2, in the first four minutes.
Senior forward Katie Zenevitch led the Eagles with 10 points and seven rebounds-freshman Emilee Daley had a career-high 13 points, and freshman Kelly Hughes added 10 points.
The Orange didn’t waste any time, as they jumped ahead by confirming a strong 10-point lead within the first 10 minutes, as the score was Syracuse, 19, BC 9.
It seemed to be purely a battle from outside the arc as both offenses repetitively attacked from the 3-point line. Although BC leads the ACC in 3-point field goals, Syracuse was able to sink nine of its 15 attempts while the Eagles hit five of their 10 from downtown in the first half.
As the lead continued to stretch, Syracuse strived to gain the majority of its points from quick counter attacks.
“We kept giving the ball away and they [Syracuse] took advantage of each turnover,” Johnson said.
Sophomore guard Brianna Butler led the Orange with 18 points in the first half while the Eagles’ points were spread out fairly evenly throughout the team. Freshman guard Emilee Daley led the Eagles with eight points.
At the end of the first half, the Orange had made a commanding 18-point lead and led 43- 25.
The story unfolding was that of Butler. A three by Butler made the Syracuse lead 19-9 with 11:09 left in the half. It was her third 3-pointer of the game. She would continue to hit 3-pointers as her fifth bucket of the half gave the Orange a 40-20 lead with under three minutes left in the half. Her sixth 3-pointer extended the lead 43-23 with 1:57 to play.
The Eagles found some momentum late in the first half with a 3-point shot by Hughes, but the Orange answered back as their shots continued to fall from 3-point land.
Despite a handful of quality opportunities, the Eagles’ offense could not compete with the aerial attack from the Syracuse Orange.
Syracuse shot 57.1 percent from the field and 60 percent from the three-point line. ‘Cuse hit nine of 15 3-pointers in the half. BC shot just 47.6 percent from the floor and went five for 10 from the 3-point line.
Butler began the second half with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 51-25. Butler hit her first two field goals at 15:31, giving her 23 points and ‘Cuse a 53-28 lead. The Eagles never recovered as the Orange continued to press and hit long-range shots.
There was enough action to keep the spectators satisfied regardless of the loss suffered by the Eagles, as Syracuse ran a clinic in Conte Forum, the game finishing with a final score of 71-47, the lowest-scoring game for the Eagles this year.
BC will travel to South Carolina to take on the Tigers of Clemson University in an ACC match up on Feb. 20, before returning back to Chestnut Hill for its last home game of the regular season to play the University of Maryland on Feb. 27.
