Boston College is a difficult team to understand this season. The Eagles possess a .500 record (13-13) overall but are only 4-9 in the ACC. BC has beaten the opponents that they should have and has lost to superior teams.
They have played more consistently at home (10-5) than they have away (3-8). For instance, the Eagles have blown out Syracuse and Clemson at home by 39 & 29 points, respectively, for two conference wins. Their other two came on the road when the defeated Virginia by 15 and Miami by 4.

2024-25 Women's Basketball Roster - Boston College Athletics

BC is a guard-oriented team with ten guards on the roster. The two inside players that play are both 6-1 PFs. The HC, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, is in her seventh year at the helm in Boston with a record of 92-88. She has built a defensive-oriented team that led the ACC in steals last season with 11.7 steals per game. The Eagles start a four-guard lineup with one post. The guards are athletic and three are 6-0 feet tall.

Season Stats PDF - Boston College Athletics

Three of the starting guards possess special skills. T'yana Todd is a 6-0 junior SG that is Boston College's leading scorer with 14.0 ppg. She is their three-point threat with 60 of120 (50%) on the season. Cal needs to formulate a game plan to keep #30 under control. The Eagles's defensive stopper is Dontavia Waggoner, a 6-0 SG. Last season, she was named to the ACC all-defensive team with 99 steals! She is a fifth year grad student that averages 13.2 points and grabs 5 rebounds per game. In 2024-25, she has created two steals on average. Waggoner knows how to draw fouls and has made 32 more free throws (89) than anyone else on her team. Dontavia played her freshman season at NC State and then transferred to BC.

The #3 offensive threat should sound familiar: Teya Sidberry, a 6-1 junior transfer from Utah. Sidberry joined the Eagles last season as a soph and led the team in scoring w/ 13.5 ppg. This season Teya contributes 11.2 points & 6.2 boards per contest. She is active on "D" and is second in steals w/45! She also is 3rd in treys made with 20. Another 6-0 wing is senior Andrea Daley who adds 9.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. She is second in assists (43) plus is 3rd in steals (32). Finally, the floor general is Kaylah Ivey, a 5-8 fifth year RS senior point guard. Ivey is one of the elite PGs in the nation. She has 134 assists as compared to 38 turnovers on the season. This is an average per game of 5.36 assists vs 1.5 TOs! This leader of the offense also is 2nd in made three-pointers w/ 33.

A trio of youngsters come of the bench with bigtime energy and potential for the future. Nene Ndiaye is a 6-1 sophomore from Senegal. She averages 4.8 ppg but tallied 16 points at Pitt last Thursday night to top her team. She is an excellent shot blocker. Two freshmen guards are exciting prospects. Tatum Greene is a 6-3 SG who puts up 4.3 points and leads the Eagles w/ 19 shot blocks. Her mother played in the WNBA. The final piece is the backup PG, 5-5 Athena Tomlinson from Clovis West HS. I saw her against Mitty twice and she is lightning fast. She is 2nd in assists with 49 and was ranked # 56 by ESPN HoopGurlz.

My prediction for this game is Cal will come out on top, 77-67. The Bears are in a seven- game slump (3-4) and have only scored seventy or above twice. The strength of Boston College is their ability to turnover their opposition. I'm hoping that the Bears can keep the TOs at 20 or less. Cal needs to get their three-point shooting in rhythm again and hit ten or more. Even in the 30-point blowout of Pitt, only the splash sisters hit multiple treys. Suarez & Williams have stopped contributing and both made zero. Cal also needs to dominate the boards with Michelle Onyiah and Marta Suarez both having big offensive games to help balance the offense. GO BEARS!

Do they play an aggressive defense?

a

Lulu stop forcing lob entry passes to the post. Marta stop dribbling in the key. All players look to Michelle on the screen and roll or when the defense high presses and double teams at the top of the arc--they miss her open many times a game.

Clean those things up and go hard to the glass on layups not avoiding contact, and we are a Sweet Sixteen team or even an Elite 8 with favorable matchups. But, if we keep doing what we're doing and being loose with the ball (20+ TOs) and we are one and done.

Cal is too slow for this opponent. Bears have five turnovers in 5 minutes plus 1 foul each on Suarez & Onyiah.
Suarez is getting outrebounded by six-foot guards of Boston College. Krimili cannot get open often with #24 Waggoner defending her. She had to be taken out for a rest after 5 minutes.

Cal is only getting scoring from its post players. The Eagles have hit 5-10 on their treys while the Bears are 1-8. Suarez & Onyiah are turning the ball over too much. Seven of Cal's ten TOs are from them. BC leads 23-22.

Bears finish with a 10-0 run to lead by 11 at intermission. Cal is killing BC on the board, 19-9. Fortunatelty, the Eagles are traveling often and are right behind the Bears in TOs.

Boston College is playing #33 Savannah Samuels who has been out for their last three games. I did not include her in my scouting report but she looks quite healthy tonight. She swished a three!

I hope that Cal can start the second half strongly and stretch out this lead. GO BEARS!

We are a different team when the three pointers are dropping. Need to get out of this negative streak.

biggest problem is they keep standing flat footed, stare down the post player, and try to pass it against to ready defenders

Positive Assists/TO's - 11/10. That helps.

Bears lead by 11 at half.

Out of 10 TOs I'd say 5 are unforced errors.

A couple were players trying to make the right play; others were just sloppy. Cut those out and Cal is probably up 16.

Cal is and should dominate the paint.

coach cleared out one side and two successful passes to Michelle

but I think the trigger is Kalya Williams ... when she is aggressive and is breaking down defense to score or pass the ball moves better and we get better shots

Pre-game odds were Cal by 10.5

Up and down third. Cal leads by ten and dominating in the paint but oh those 18 turnovers - too many unforced.
Go Bears!

cal with so many unforced turnovers, of all types ... Anastasia should not be bringing the ball up against pressure

How many games until they curb the beyond head scratching TOs?

cal needs to maintain their poise (which they aren't doing right now)

438 to go clinging to 6 point lead. But 5-23 from deep and Onyiah with four fouls. Someone besides Onyiah and Suarez need to score

Whistle whistle whistle. These last thee minutes are going to be a slog

Two to go. Bears need to be steady. No more turnovers!

55 seconds. Another turnover but Cal leads by nine

BC turns it over. 50 seconds to go.

Jeeez. BC was letting Cal dribble it out AND Cal turns it over AGAIN and 33.6 to go and lead is 7

Williams makes two free throws and lead is nine. But still time with Cal turnover propensity

Great 20th win but, my God, has there ever been a worse ball-handling team than Cal? Onyiah & Suarez decided the game in favor of the Bears. I predicted a 10-point margin, but it ended up at 9 points. Cal can't score enough to reach my target scores (77). Four missed layups in fourth quarter by combo of Kayla Williams & Michelle Onyiah. GO BEARS!

Finnish Oski said:

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That was one of the worst officiated games I've ever been to in any sport anywhere. They called everything and anything and mostly against Cal. That and all the Bear turnovers made it an ugly game. Still the lede is that the Bears are now 20 game winners with five left in the regular season.

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not as bad as the game the refs called THREE 3 second violations and about 10 walks

gljone said:

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Considering Cal's massive advantage in the paint, I'd have thought attacking the rim in those situations would have been a higher percentage play.

If someone who was there, am I wrong?

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I was there and I think you are correct.

gljone said:

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There were 2000 in attendance - not bad due to the weather.

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To my eyes attendance looked well under 1000. Maybe they're counting ticket holders who weren't there.