The women’s basketball team experienced an early exit from the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) with an 85-61 first round-loss to Boston College on Thursday night at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

Though the Elis (14-15, 10-4 Ivy) were able to keep pace with the Eagles (19-12, 5-9 ACC) for the beginning of the first half, B.C. used an 11-0 run to go up 30-15 at the 5:56 mark. The Eagles maintained control of the game for the remainder of the half and took a 47-28 edge into the locker room.

B.C. shot a scorching 70 percent (19 of 27) from the field in the first half and also outrebounded the Elis, 21-6.

The Eagles only added to their lead after halftime and scored six unanswered points to open the second half. Though the Bulldogs were able to trim the deficit to 18 points after forward Mady Gobrecht ’11 knocked down two shots from the charity stripe with 9:35 left, that would be as close as they would get, as B.C. was able to maintain its offensive tempo and come away with the win.

B.C. guard Jaclyn Thoman led all scorers with 23 points. Forward Stefanie Murphy added 18 points and seven rebounds, while center Carolyn Swords finished with nine points and a game-high 11 boards.

Forward Janna Graf ’14 paced the Bulldogs with 15 points, four rebounds and three steals. Gobrecht tallied 10 points, five boards and four steals, and forward Michelle Cashen ’12 added 11 points for Yale.

It was the first time the Bulldogs had played in a postseason tournament since 1979.