The Boston College women's basketball team understandably brimmed with confidence prior to its matchup against Syracuse. The previous two games inserted the Eagles into a postseason conversation with pocketed wins over NC State and Florida State, and the Orange didn't possess the same looming, thundering shadow of the two national tournament contenders despite their over-.500 record.
The larger body of work just didn't jump off the page, but four quarters and 40 minutes' worth of basketball changed the perception of the Orange in the ever-evolving ACC with an 83-73 result that simultaneously relegated BC into the middle tier of a conference that refuses to let up its chaos for one winter night.