Coming into the 2019-20 season, Boston College women’s basketball seemed poised to continue the rebuild that head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee began in her first year on the Heights. After the program fell into the gutter during Erik Johnson’s tenure as head coach—winning just 10 conference games over his five years in charge—Bernabei-McNamee’s first year in charge provided some hope of better things to come. The team won just three conference games in the 2018-19 season, but it dominated in non-conference play and notched a dramatic double OT win over Duke.
Despite the positives in Bernabei’s-McNamee’s first season as head coach, nothing pointed to the success that BC would enjoy during the 2019-20 season. After initially struggling in non-conference play, the Eagles proved to be a tough foe in Atlantic Coast play, posting an 11-7 record and finishing sixth in the conference. The conference record was BC’s best ever as a member of the ACC. BC continued its strong conference play into the ACC tournament, where it knocked off Clemson and Duke before falling to NC State in the semifinals. The Eagles were projected as a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament but were robbed of their first tournament berth since 2006 after its cancellation due to coronavirus. To top it all off, Bernabei-McNamee’s stellar work on the Heights earned her the ACC’s Coach of the Year award.
Most Valuable (and Most Improved) Player: Taylor Soule
Emma Guy was the only Eagle to earn All-ACC First Team honors, but Soule edged her out as BC’s most valuable player due to Soule’s consistency throughout the season and a string of strong performances in the final games of the season. Soule led the Eagles in both scoring and rebounding, tallying an average of 14.5 and 7.7 boards per game. She scored at least 20 points in five of BC’s last nine games, including a herculean 26-point performance against Duke that propelled the Eagles into the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
Rookie of the Year: Cameron Swartz
There are limited options for Rookie of the Year for this team, as Cameron Swartz and Jaelyn Batts were the only first-year players that saw the court for the Eagles. Swartz is not a freshman—she played her freshman year at Colorado before joining BC as a second-year player. The Eagles’ roster only featured two freshmen, Batts and center Akunna Konkwo, and Konkwo missed the entire season with an injury.
Swartz had an up-and-down year in her first season as an Eagle, averaging nine points on 36 percent shooting from the field and 29.7 percent from 3-point distance. Swartz started the season with a number of strong performances, particularly taking advantage of BC’s matchups against weaker competition. She scored at least 18 points against St. Francis College Brooklyn, Charlotte, Delaware State, and Tulane—against the last of which she put up 27 points—and was the Eagles’ leading scorer for much of the early stretch of the season.
Despite the promise she showed in her first games as an Eagle, Swartz struggled to replicate her early season form down the stretch. Sidelined for a pair of games in early January with a lower-leg injury, Swartz never regained her shooting stroke after returning to the court, shooting just 24.5 percent over the rest of the season. The aggressiveness on the offensive end that made her such a threat in the beginning of the season turned against her and the Eagles as she often proved unable to play within the flow of coach Bernabei-McNamee’s offense. She fell out of the starting lineup by early February and never saw more than 20 minutes on the floor in BC’s last five contests.
Even so, Swartz established herself as a much-needed depth player, and with continued development under Bernabei-McNamee’s tutelage, she is shaping up to make a big difference for BC in the coming years.
Best Play: Emma Guy’s Buzzer Beater Against Notre Dame
Near the end of the regular season, BC found itself playing Notre Dame in Chestnut Hill with the chance for a first-ever season sweep of the Irish. The Eagles’ odds of a victory looked slim after going down to the Irish 43-28 midway through the third quarter, but BC mounted a ferocious comeback, ending the third quarter on a 9-0 run and taking the lead with 7:49 to go in the game. The two teams went basket-for-basket in the final minutes of the game, until BC came away with a miraculous victory on a beautiful inbound pass from Georgia Pineau to Emma Guy for the game-winning layup. The end-of-game heroics gave the Eagles their first ever sweep over Notre Dame and a renewed energy heading into the final stretch of the season.
Best Moment: Coming Back to Beat Duke in the ACC Tournament
With a spot in the ACC Tournament semifinals at stake, the Eagles trailed Duke 70-77 with just 4:45 to play in the game. BC had held the game close for three quarters, but Duke seemed poised to coast to victory after star guard Haley Gorecki scored six points in less than 30 seconds just before the halfway mark of the final period. The Eagles responded by turning to their star player, and Soule poured in seven straight points to tie the game with 2:30 to play. After Guy’s layup gave BC the lead, Soule drained five free throws to seal the game, giving her 26 points on the game. The Eagles locked down Gorecki in the final minutes, forcing her into three misses and a turnover, and the Blue Devils never scored another point. The epic come-from-behind victory gave the Eagles their first berth in the ACC tournament semifinals in nine seasons.
Worst Moment: Out-of-Conference Play
Although BC won six of its 10 non-conference games, the Eagles dropped a trio of games to low-ranking teams. After starting the season with two lopsided wins over UMass Lowell and St. Francis College Brooklyn, BC lost to Holy Cross by nine and Providence by 16. The scope of the losses was even bigger than the final margin suggested, as the Eagles cut into the lead in the fourth quarter of both contests when the outcome was already beyond doubt. The resounding loss to Providence was a particularly painful loss for the Eagles, as the Friars finished the season with a 13-19 record and just three conference wins. BC also fell to Charlotte by a large margin later on in non-conference play. Although Charlotte had a strong season—going 21-9 overall and 11-7 in conference—the school plays in the traditionally weak Conference USA. BC managed to redeem its poor out-of-conference play a bit with a narrow loss to Northwestern in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Northwestern proved to be one of the best teams in the nation, finishing the abbreviated season ranked No. 11 in the country.
Season Storylines:
1) Fast-Paced, High-Scoring Offense
BC proved to be a very effective offensive team, scoring 73.7 points per game. That mark ranked 30th in the country and best among ACC teams. The Eagles were an average 3-point shooting team, ranking in the middle of the pack nationally in both makes and percentage, but they were adept at pushing the pace. Bernabei-McNamee constantly implored the Eagles to press the pace, making frequent reference to it in post-game press conferences. Marnelle Garraud led the speed movement for the Eagles, consistently using her quickness to force turnovers and get out in transition. Makayla Dickens had a knack for hitting pull-up 3-pointers as she trailed behind Garraud in transition situations. Swartz proved not to be the consistent shooting threat that she seemed to be in the early season, but she had a deft ability to run the floor and make smart passes on the move.
2) Lack of Depth
The Eagles had remarkable consistency and success in their starting rotation all season, as Soule, Guy, Dickens, and Garraud all made at least 26 starts and consistently played well. BC struggled to find similar consistent production from its bench, however. Milan Bolden-Morris played more frequently early in the season but quickly fell out of the rotation and hardly saw the court by the end of the season. Taylor Ortlepp came up big for the Eagles at the very end of the season, highlighted by her six 3-pointer performance against Syracuse, but she was largely ineffective off the bench for most of the season despite playing big minutes. Pineau’s limitations as a ball handler forced the Eagles to alter their offense with her on the court. These issues with bench depth could continue to be a challenge for the Eagles next year, as both Pineau and Ortlepp are graduating.
What’s Next
The cancellation of the NCAA tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic was an unfortunate end to a great season, but the Eagles have all the pieces to make a similar run next year. The loss of Guy to graduation is significant, but the Eagles return their three other consistent starters, and Swartz, who started for a majority of the season, is also coming back. All four will be juniors, giving hope that the Eagles will not only be able to bring continued success into the 2020-21 season, but into 2022 as well.
The Eagles also lose their two top players off the bench, as both Ortlepp and Pineau will graduate, but BC will benefit from several talented newcomers. BC brought in three recruits in the 2020 class, highlighted by guard Josiah Lacey. ESPN ranks Lacey as the 14th best guard and 55th best player overall in the class of 2020. Akunna Konkwo, a top 100 player in the class of 2019, will also join the Eagles after missing her entire freshman season due to injury.
BC found great success earlier in Bernabei-McNamee’s rebuild than it was expected to, and now the test will be if it can continue to build off that success. With most of the starting lineup returning, a number of talented players joining the rotation, and another year for the team to learn Bernabei-McNamee’s system, there is no reason to believe the Eagles cannot continue the upward trajectory.
Featured Image by Maggie DiPatri / Heights Editor
Featured Graphic by Ally Mozeliak / Heights Editor
