Julie McBride at one point stood still in the backcourt against Boston College on Saturday afternoon at Manley Field House. She had the ball and slowly dribbled, but she didn’t dare think of advancing it. She was merely killing time as Syracuse slowly lost, 59-52, to Boston College.

The Syracuse women’s basketball point guard was simply following the orders of her coach, Keith Cieplicki, who stood right next to her on the bench and gave her the repeated instruction to slow down the tempo of the game. Cieplicki didn’t want to let Boston College run loose and take over the game.

McBride remained so close to Cieplicki that when Boston College (20-6, 10-5 Big East) freshman Sarah Marshall tried to sneak up on her and steal the ball, Cieplicki was able to tap her on the shoulder to alert her.

While McBride held onto the ball and led Syracuse (6-19, 3-12) with 22 points, keeping the SU offense at a slow and sometimes boring pace wasn’t enough to defeat Boston College. The Eagles held on despite the tempo and more importantly because of clutch second-half free-throw shooting.

‘I liked our tempo,’ Cieplicki said. ‘I liked a lot of things we got offensively. We had our chances in the last five, six minutes.’

Syracuse trailed 25-19 at the break but used a 9-3 run over the first four-plus minutes of the half to tie the game at 28 on a McBride 3-pointer.

But that was the last time Syracuse tied the game.

The Orangewomen, though, to their credit, never fell completely out of it. They trailed by as many as eight points at one point but trimmed the lead to single possessions on four different occasions.

But each time Syracuse managed a run at the lead, BC countered with a big shot. Down the stretch, the Eagles went to the line and hit their free throws, shooting nearly 81 percent in the second half, including 14 of their last 16.

The Eagles hit six field goals in the second half, emphasizing just how important the free-throw shooting was as Syracuse committed 16 second-half fouls.

‘We definitely had to come up big at the free-throw line,’ said Jessalyn Deveny, who led BC with 17 points and eight rebounds. ‘And I think we did a really good job.’

BC head coach Cathy Inglese agreed, noting that with her team’s physical style of play, converting free throws is a necessity.

‘That’s been one of our strengths throughout the season,’ Inglese said. ‘Against West Virginia, we were 17-for-17. You know, especially coming down, teams are going to foul you or we’re taking the ball hard to the basket, we’re going to get fouled. I was really pleased they kept their poise and composure.’

McBride agreed. Syracuse got the tempo it wanted, but the Orangewomen missed a few too many shots late, and BC was able to put it away at the line.

‘You know, they took it at us,’ McBride said. ‘They forced us to foul. We made a couple of dumb fouls. They’re a good team. The second half, they just kept driving on us and forced us to help.’

Published on February 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm