On Oct. 13, at a Basketball Hall of Fame exhibition game at Mohegan Sun Arena, graduate student Emma LoPinto came off the bench in the last two minutes and immediately sank a three against the 2025 National Champions, UConn. Based on that alone, you may be surprised to hear that LoPinto hasn’t competitively played basketball in four years.
Growing up in Manhasset, New York, LoPinto played basketball and lacrosse. In her high school basketball career, she won two conference championships, was conference player of the year her junior year, and scored over 1,000 points. She briefly participated in AAU, and remembers going to a tournament in Atlanta and being starstruck by UConn’s Geno Auriemma and all the top schools represented.
Being from Long Island, lacrosse was incredibly competitive. LoPinto initially hated the sport and found it overly stressful. Basketball was always a “pressure-free sport” for her. However, her love for lacrosse began to grow in high school. She ultimately decided she wanted to play in college, but her admiration for basketball, even through casually shooting around, never ended.
In 2022, she started her college athletic career on the lacrosse team at the University of Florida. Ending her first season with 97 points, she earned the title of the fourth-most points by a rookie in NCAA history. At the end of her sophomore year, she ranked first in program history in points per game and assists per game.
Ahead of her junior year, LoPinto transferred to Boston College where she helped the team win the 2024 National Championship, scoring two goals and an assist. Her senior year, the Eagles unfortunately fell to Northwestern in the semifinals round, but she ended her season with the sixth-most points in the nation. LoPinto expressed her love for BC because its athletic programs care not only about player development, but about holistic personal growth.
After four years of Division I athletics, LoPinto had an extra year of eligibility, but not for lacrosse. She didn’t want to start working just yet, so she considered taking a fifth year and contacted the head coach of women’s basketball, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, in October 2024. It wasn’t until this past April that Bernabei-McNamee gave her a call and offered her a position on the team.
Practices began in July. LoPinto recalls her mentality after joining the team, saying “having a girl who hasn’t played basketball in four years come onto this team, like smack in the middle of the summer…I was so nervous, but they have been nothing but welcoming, both the coaches and the players, and that’s kind of all I asked for.” With only two returning players, this team is quite new, which understandably requires an adjustment period to build chemistry.
In a recent poll, BC women’s basketball is projected to finish 17th of 18th in the ACC. LoPinto does not believe that defines her team in the slightest. “Even though we aren’t ranked number one, these girls on the team, they work so hard. Girls are in the gym at 6 a.m. working and they’re here after practice,” said LoPinto.
The grit and determination of this team was certainly evident in their exhibition match last week. Although BC fell to UConn, 84-67, LoPinto said “it felt like we had won, all of us were so happy.” The players were convinced that they were “gonna get killed,” but BC held their own and hit most of their stat goals.
LoPinto said she blacked out in the moment and “will probably be thinking about [her three-pointer] for a long time.”
“We’re all we’ve got, we’re a small little team,” said LoPinto, and the most important thing is to “control what [we] can control.” They were energetic, competitive, and kept their heads held high, even in an arena filled with UConn fans, and that says a lot about the potential of this program.
Outside of basketball, LoPinto actively competes for USA Lacrosse. In June, LoPinto led Team USA with 20 points, helping them win the inaugural Pan-American Women’s Lacrosse Championship. As recently as September, LoPinto was in Maryland for the USA Lacrosse Atlas Cup.
Additionally, she was invited to two camps in November and January in preparation for the Tokyo World Championships this summer. Looking even farther into the future, these camps could lead to an Olympic invitation in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which added lacrosse for the first time since 1948.
LoPinto is extremely focused on her present role on the basketball team, but beyond college she hopes to play lacrosse as long as she can in addition to either teaching or coaching. She earned an undergraduate degree in transformative education and is currently pursuing her masters in sports management through the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Both her academics and her experiences with the BC coaching staff have strengthened her passion.
When asked about participating in the Women’s Lacrosse League, established in 2024, LoPinto said, “Ever since I was younger, I never thought lacrosse would take off like this…I would absolutely love to try and get involved in that.” LoPinto hopes to see the WLL expand and eventually mirror organizations like the PWHL or the WNBA.
“It’s cheesy,” said LoPinto, “but I love women’s sports and I think watching them is just so empowering.”
Mirroring that sentiment, women’s sports are reaching new horizons, and it’s thanks to multi-talented, dedicated athletes like LoPinto herself.
poli sci and history major who chronically rewatches movies/tv shows that were popular in middle school to feel something
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