Teams: Syracuse Orange (8-5, 1-2) vs. Boston College Golden Eagles (9-4, 0-2)
Day & Time: Thursday, January 6, 7 p.m. ET
Location: Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA
TV/Streaming: ACC Network Extra
Radio: Cuse.com, ESPN 97.7
Rivalry: Syracuse, 35-24
Current Streak: Syracuse, 3
First Meeting: Syracuse topped the Eagles 66-62 at home back on February 19, 1983.
Last Meeting: The Orange earned a rare three-game sweep of BC with a 67-61 victory in the first round of the 2021 ACC Tournament. Syracuse led for almost the entire game and Kiara Lewis paced the Orange with 21 points.
Head Coaches: Syracuse - Vonn Read (1st year, 8-5) | BC - Joanna Bernabei-McNamee (4th year, 50-44)
Coach Bio: Bernabei-McNamee played her college ball at the Division II level for West Liberty State in West Virginia, where she set the record for average assists per game (9.5). After graduating, she started her coaching career with West Virginia Wesleyan in 1998.
She made assistant coaching stops at Eastern Kentucky, Maryland, and West Virginia before taking the head job at NAIA Pikeville in 2013. After three seasons at Pikeville, which included an NAIA Final Four appearance, she left to take over at Albany. In two seasons with the Great Danes, she led her team to an NCAA Tournament berth in 2017 and made the WNIT the next year.
She came to BC ahead of the 2018-19 season and won 20 games in 2019-20, but has yet to make a postseason appearance.
Last Year: The Golden Eagles had a rough go of things in 2020-21, finishing 7-12 overall, 2-11 in the ACC, and failing to make the postseason.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Taylor Soule is BC’s best inside scoring threat despite only being 5-11. She leads her team with 16.3 points per game and shoots an impressive 62 percent from the field. She’s gone over the 20-point mark five times in 2021-22, and it will be interesting to see how the Orange defends her.
If Syracuse Wins: It would be a solid win over a BC team that has a similar body of work to the Orange. These are the games that Syracuse needs to win to improve its NCAA Tournament chances.
If Syracuse Loses: A loss to BC is not the end of the world, but the Orange will regret letting a chance for a conference road win slip past.
Fun Fact: Both the Syracuse men’s and women’s basketball teams have all five of their starters averaging double-digit points. One has to wonder if this is the case in any other program across the country.