Nov. 14, 2008

Chestnut Hill, MA -

BC-St. Francis Box Score

The Boston College women's basketball team opened the 2008-09 season with a 99-68 victory over St. Francis College in front of 902 fans at Conte Forum last night. The victory was the first for new Boston College head coach Sylvia Crawley, who arrived at the Heights in April.

"We faced a lot of challenges this week. I am extremely happy with the win,'' said Crawley. "The team gave me the game ball for my first win at BC. This is extremely important to me.''

The Eagles took the lead early and never looked back. Senior Corey Rusin and sophomore Carolyn Swords combined for 24 first half points as BC took a 47-30 lead into the locker room at the half. Rusin shot 4-for-4 from the field, including 1-for-1 from the three-point arc, while Swords shot 7-for-9 with four rebounds.

The second half was more of the same. Boston College continued to push the ball up the floor and create turnovers with its swarming defense.

With 10:08 to play, Boston College held a 68-43 lead when sophomore Lauren Whitehurst hit a jumper at the top of the key.

"We played well together,'' said Crawley. "I we played as individuals it was not going to be BC basketball and we talked about that. But the 22 assists shows we played together.''

Boston College shot 54 percent from the field and held St. Francis to 32 percent shooting. The Eagles also forced 19 turnovers and had 34 points in the paint compared to 19 for St. Francis.

Swords finished with 18 points and six rebounds, while Rusin had a career high 13 points and added six assists. Sophomore Stefanie Murphy had 14 points and nine rebounds, while junior Ayla Brown added eight points and six rebounds off the bench.

Game Notes:
Senior captain Corey Rusin earned her first start since her sophomore season. Rusin finished with her career-high 13 points and added six assists ... Freshman Jasmine Gill saw her first collegiate action. She entered the game at 2:56 in the first half and immediately recorded a stat when she set up Swords for an easy bucket underneath. Gill had five points and three assists in 12 minutes of action ... Freshman Mia Nickson, a 6-foot-2 freshman from Virginia, notched her first collegiate point on a foul shot at 4:48 in the game. She finished with five points and five rebounds in just four minutes ...The last time BC scored over 90 points was in 2005-06 when the Eagles defeated Niagara, 101-69.