Eagles are brought back to earth

NORFOLK, Va. -- It was an emotional day yesterday for the Boston College women's basketball team. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they were the wrong emotions, as their ride in the NCAA Tournament came to a skidding halt.

No. 7 seed Minnesota defeated No. 3 seed BC, 76-63, in the Mideast Regional at Old Dominion's Ted Constant Convocation Center before 7,703. The Golden Gophers will face No. 1 seed Duke in the Elite Eight tomorrow. The Blue Devils defeated No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech, 63-49, in the other Mideast Regional game yesterday.

The Eagles (27-7), who made it to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year, started out hot, as they stepped out to a 10-2 lead. The Golden Gophers had made just one of their five shots from the floor with 15:49 to play in the half. But Minnesota tied the score at 12-12 on a 3-pointer by Shannon Schonrock, then answered a jumper by BC's Clare Droesch and two free throws by Amber Jacobs to tie the game again, 18-18, with 9:14 left in the half.

The Golden Gophers (24-8) had a 5-point lead after three straight layups by center Janel McCarville, who finished with a game-high 25 points and 15 rebounds. Minnesota had a 2-point advantage, 30-28, at the half, then put BC away for good after the intermission.

The Golden Gophers went on a 16-2 run to open the second half and took a 46-31 lead with 14:58 left in the game. All the Eagles could do for the rest of the game was tread water.

Junior Jessalyn Deveny scored 14 of her team-high 18 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer with 2:34 left, but by then the Eagles were down by 13. Likewise, treys by point guard Jacobs and freshman Kindyll Dorsey were virtually meaningless. And Minnesota scored its last 7 points at the line.

When Jacobs came out of the game after she hit her trey, the bench and the fans behind the bench stood and cheered, and coach Cathy Inglese embraced the player who had just finished her last college game. There were more hugs after the game as Inglese congratulated Minnesota coach Pam Borton, who was Inglese's assistant at BC and, before that, Vermont.

So Inglese refused to be too down. "I'm proud to be coaching this team," she said of the Eagles, who had the most wins in school history and won the Big East tournament.

Inglese said she was impressed by the Golden Gophers. "Minnesota did a super job," she said. "They had a great game plan, and worked hard on both ends of the court. I thought early on they were a Final Four team, and they certainly proved that tonight."

Borton said her team played a good game -- minus the opening four minutes. "We played a great game for 36 minutes," she said. "Those first four minutes left much to be desired, but I thought we played a great game, and it's a great feeling to [be playing] in the Elite Eight."

Borton said the goal of the Golden Gophers was to shut down BC's No. 2 scorer, Jacobs, whom she called "the heart and soul of their team." And it seemed to be the right decision. Jacobs was held to just two free throws in the first half, and finished with just 7 points on 1-for-8 shooting.

But Minnesota's real damage was done in the post, where 6-foot-2-inch junior center McCarville notched her seventh straight double-double and had a career-high seven blocks. BC's center, freshman Kathrin Ress, was held to 11 points and committed four fouls. Two Eagles -- Droesch and Aja Parham -- fouled out as they tried to contain the Golden Gophers.

"When Boston College's post players got into trouble, we just kept feeding [Janel] the ball," Borton said.

Minnesota finished with four players in double figures, including senior Lindsay Whalen, who had 15 points and 10 assists. Whalen, who missed the last seven games of the season with a broken hand, showed no ill effects. She went on a tear in the second half, nailing two 3-pointers and converting a steal to give Minnesota a 14-point lead with just over three minutes left.

It was that half, Jacobs said, that cost the Eagles. "They made their mark early in the second half, and in the NCAA Tournament, you definitely don't want to go down by a large margin," she said. "But to our credit, we stayed in it, and tried to just keep chipping away."

They just couldn't chip enough.