Last modified: Friday, November 14, 2008 1:54 AM EST Flanked by her mother Elizabeth Monteiro (left), Mary Nwachukwu signs her letter of intent to Boston College. (Staff photo by TOM MAGUIRE) Nwachukwu signs on with BC BY JAMES SCHNEIDER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF REHOBOTH - N-w-a-c-h-u-k-w-u. As soon as Dighton-Rehoboth girls' basketball standout Mary Nwachukwu finished the unenviable task of spelling that name out on a letter of intent for Boston College Thursday afternoon at Dighton-Rehoboth High School, it was official. Dighton-Rehoboth had its first-ever Division I recruit for basketball. "I'm really excited, I'm really relieved," Nwachukwu said. "It's been a really long process. I'm happy that it all paid off and it worked out for me." The fact that a 6-foot-2 forward that led Eastern Mass. with 29.9 points per game last year to go with 18.2 rebounds is heading to Newton Hills to play basketball should come as no surprise. But when Nwachukwu joined the Falcons her freshman year, her coach never dreamed she would be here, signing a letter to be a BC Eagle. Nwachukwu suffered a broken ankle as a freshman and had struggled to find her place on the court. "Did I think she would be here after her freshman year? No, but by the same token she had been injured," Dighton-Rehoboth girls' basketball coach Jon Pacheco said. "But towards the end of that sophomore year you went, 'wow, this kid can really do something.' Now you're looking at her like 'this kid can play wherever she wants.'" "There's been a lot of good people that have helped me that I don't think I could have done it without," Nwachukwu said. "I don't think I could have done half the things I did without them." With no shortages of schools courting the talented senior, Nwachukwu made a decision to attend Boston College. She is one of the first recruits for new head coach Sylvia Crawley, who took over the program this year after Cathy Inglese, who coached the Eagles for 15 years, stepped down last year. "She was really friendly, she gave me good vibes," Nwachukwu said of Crawley. "I felt that she convinced me that I could help their team win." The Eagles finished last year 21-12 overall and 7-7 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, good for fifth in the conference. The school's solid academic reputation combined with its powerful sports programs were a big reason Nwachukwu chose to wear the maroon and gold. "It was really the match between academics and athletics," she said. "It's basically an Ivy League school and I get to compete in the ACC. I figured that, with it being an hour away ... I couldn't go wrong." Nwachukwu still has her senior season at D-R ahead of her, a senior season in which the Falcons are expected to take the South Coast Conference and compete for a state title. Nwachukwu will be a big part of that Falcon run, having scored 1,108 career points through her three seasons, which puts her just two points behind Keli Rupert (1997-2001) for the D-R girls' record. The senior is currently fifth on the school's all time scoring list, with a chance to take over all-time leader Tom Blessing, who scored 1,725 points from 1996-2000. With those types of gaudy stats, it's no surprise she's heading to Boston College next year. "We're excited and happy for her," Pacheco said. "She worked very hard and she deserves it, she really does."