As Julie McBride watched the scene unfold, waiting near the press table to do a radio interview, she looked away for a second, hiding her emotions.

But the senior guard couldn’t stop them from coming, grabbing her white jersey to wipe away the tears streaming down her face.

As onlookers gathered around her, McBride realized something: This was her last memory at Manley Field House.

‘I really haven’t thought about it,’ McBride said. ‘It probably won’t hit me until later on in a couple weeks or a couple months. I’m going to miss a lot of things, just coming out here and playing out here. I’ve been playing here for four years, and I’ve had a lot of support over those four years from my family. Just playing for Syracuse is something that I’ve always wanted. It’s something I’m going to miss.’

McBride scored a team-high 22 points, pulled down six rebounds and added four assists, while playing all 40 minutes of Saturday’s contest. Her efforts even drew an unusual request from Boston College head coach Cathy Inglese.

‘I would like to have somebody for a term project look at every one of the game films and see what percentage of scores (McBride) plays a part in, as far as driving, dishing, finding the right person,’ Inglese said. ‘She does so many different things.’

Crashing the boards

For just the second time this season, Syracuse pulled down more rebounds than its opponent. The Orangewomen, who ranked last in the Big East with a minus-11.8 rebounding margin, won the battle against the Eagles, 25-22.

‘Can we get a W just for that?’ Cieplicki joked.

The only other time SU outrebounded its opponent, it led to a 60-46 victory over Navy on Nov. 30. But at least the Orangewomen couldn’t say rebounding led to their defeat like they typically did after most losses.

In fact, it was almost the difference that kept SU in the game. The Orangewomen might have sealed their fate when McBride missed a pull-up jumper with SU trailing by five and 2:30 remaining, but McBride grabbed the offensive rebound. The 5-foot-4 point guard missed the mark on another shot, but once again corralled the rebound. McBride then slipped a pass inside to Tracy Harbut, who missed a lay-up in traffic. But for the third consecutive time, SU got the rebound, and Harbut eventually went to the free-throw line.

The sequence of events ultimately brought SU one point closer to BC, but it showed Cieplicki something he hadn’t seen out of the undersized Orangewomen for most the season.

‘We felt that just staying at home a little more today on players would help our rebounding chances,’ Cieplicki said. ‘It definitely worked out that way. One, we were at home more. But two, we went after the ball probably as hard as we’ve gone after it in a long time. It was nice to see.’

Tall tale

Syracuse’s man-to-man defense helped limit BC’s rebounding opportunities, but it also created mismatches the Eagles were able to exploit in the second half.

After going to the free-throw line just once in the first half, Boston College attacked the basket hard in the second half and earned 26 trips to the charity stripe.

‘They did a good job taking it at us,’ Cieplicki said. ‘We talked in the second half about cushioning, keeping people in front of us, making them shoot jumpers. But they broke us down defensively.’

Despite making only six field goals in the final 20 minutes, the Eagles maintained their lead by knocking down 21 of 26 free throws. Six-footers Aja Parham, Nicole Warren and Lisa Macchia came off the bench to score 14 of BC’s 34 second-half points.

Lauren Kohn was on the wrong end of most of the Eagles’ penetration. The freshman guard picked up four fouls while forcing no turnovers and managing just three rebounds.

‘Again, having a 5-foot-4 point guard and two freshmen on the floor when people are taking it at you, there’s only so much you can do,’ Cieplicki said. ‘We did a pretty decent job, maybe three or four mistakes that we didn’t need, but it was a good adjustment by (Boston College).’

This and that

The Orangewomen had one more field goal (17) than turnovers committed (16). … SU is now 3-17 since December. … The crowd of 1,936 was the second-largest turnout this season. … Junior Chineze Nwagbo and McBride’s family joined McBride at center court during a pregame celebration to honor the senior, at which time the crowd gave McBride a standing ovation.

Published on February 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm