Boston College’s season opener started with enough promise to make the first half feel like a springboard. Then Holy Cross showed why a veteran, connected team can be a problem even on the road.
The Crusaders, who finished their 2025-26 season 23-10, rolled through the Patriot League and earned a No. 15 seed in the March Madness bracket. On Friday, they brought that cohesion to Conte Forum and left with a 64-54 win over the Eagles.
BC (0-1) had control for much of the opening half and carried a 31-28 lead into the break after back-to-back baskets from Eunicia Salgado and Jocelyne Grier. But the third quarter flipped the game. The Eagles managed only eight points in the period and committed six turnovers, and Holy Cross used that stretch to seize control.
“You could see their culture and their togetherness really come through in the second half, especially when things got hard,” BC head coach Kate Popovec-Goss said. “Hats off to them.”
Popovec-Goss didn’t sugarcoat the difference between the two halves.
“I didn’t expect to come out here and every game be super easy and blow teams out,” Popovec-Goss said. “It’s going to be a grind, and I think my biggest focus is keeping the excitement that we had around the first game going, even though the outcome today wasn’t what we wanted.”
BC opened the second quarter with a full-court press and forced a turnover on Holy Cross’ first possession of the frame. The Eagles finished with 15 turnovers to the Crusaders’ 17, but that edge didn’t translate into enough points. BC scored just 11 off those 17 Holy Cross giveaways.
The Eagles also had trouble from deep all night, going 3-for-19 from three and shooting 31 percent overall. That cold stretch in the third quarter proved costly. Daniele Paunkstye hit a 3-pointer with 1:14 left in the period to trim the margin to four, but Holy Cross answered with a free throw and then turned a Grier turnover into a layup to take a 45-38 lead into the fourth.
Paunkstye and Grier led BC with 13 points apiece, while Salgado added 10.
“We are a team that wants to share the basketball, and so when we can get into that mode where we’re being unselfish and people are getting a piece of the paint, everyone can get a piece of the pie,” Popovec-Goss said.
Holy Cross guard Janie Bachmann was the biggest problem for the Eagles. She scored 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting and found success both inside and on the perimeter.
“We gave [Bachmann] that confidence early,” Popovec-Goss said. “She got a lot of her opportunities out of the high post-just ripping and going left-and that’s something that we really keyed in on the scouting report with her.”
BC never found the answer in the fourth quarter. Every time the Eagles scored, Holy Cross answered right back, and the gap never really tightened enough to threaten the finish.
“In the first half, I thought we executed our game plan really, really well. In the second half, we did not,” Popovec-Goss said.
“Basketball is really a simple game. If you follow the game plan, good things typically happen.”
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