Women's Basketball Earns First Win

by Erik Hinrichsen

The Boston University women’s basketball team did what they usually do at Case Gym: win.

After a lackluster road trip, which included a blowout loss to Kentucky and a tough overtime defeat at UMass, the Terriers rebounded with a victory much more lopsided than the score indicates, beating the University of Rhode Island Rams 47-35.

Improving their record to 26-1 at home over the past three seasons, the Terriers came out aggressively and with an agenda. Freshman Chantell Alford (’13) led the way early on, knocking down a 3-pointer and hitting on three of four shots. However, an elbow to the face took her out for the rest of the game, as she finished with 7 points and 2 blocked shots.

The injury to Alford could have devastated the Terriers, but they played together as one cohesive unit, as role players had to step up their game. No Terrier scored in double figures, as junior Kat Briggs (’11), freshman Caitlynn Moran (’13), and sophomore Caroline Stewart (’12) led the way with eight points each.

But it wasn’t the offense that carried the Terriers over the Rams. Instead, it was their defense. BU allowed just nine points in the first half, holding URI to 4-23 from the field, and 12-51 for the whole game. Most astonishing, though, was the 32 total turnovers the Terriers forced the Rams to commit. It was a great effort on the defensive end from BU, who had four blocks and 14 steals.

“We’ve really tried to pick up our ball pressure. Ball pressure is going to help our forwards and put the pressure on [their] guards so that they’re not getting open looks and they’re not feeling comfortable with the ball,” Briggs (’11) said.

Although the Terriers played tremendous defense, the offense continued to struggle. They shot just 16-54 from the field and a dreary 4-14 from beyond the arc. Additionally, the Terriers were outrebounded 30-53, allowing a total of 21 offensive boards. If it weren’t for the defense, the game would have been much closer.

The Terriers are going to have to give themselves an identity on offense if they want to be successful the remainder of the season. As of right now, they are a three point shooting team, attempting 61 threes in three games, but they just haven’t knocked the long-ball down consistently enough to use it as a weapon.

Even as the Terriers got past the Rams relatively easily in their first home game of the season, they know they need to stay focused on continuing to improve because they have a tough schedule ahead which includes contests at St. John’s University and the powerhouse defending national champions, the University of Connecticut.

“We have to keep playing hard. We can’t settle for anything, even if it’s a win, there are a lot of things we can improve on,” junior guard and fan favorite Krystyn McIntyre (’11) said.

Hopefully for the Terriers, they will continue to get better and build on the positives without dwelling too much on the negatives. They need to focus on playing 40 minutes instead of just 20, since they have been outscored in the second half by 35 points so far this season.

“We have got to make sure we don’t get comfortable,” McIntyre says. “Even if we have a lead early on, our coach always says it has to be 0-0 going into the second half and we have to play like that all the time.”

The Terriers now look to this weekend when they travel to New York to face St. John’s for a 2 p.m. tip-off on Saturday.