Christine Kinneary dished 10 on Jan. 19. Sarah GordonThe last time the Boston University women’s basketball team squared off against Stony Brook University, the Terriers could not have been happier with their performance, walking away with an astounding 49-point victory.
BU (15-11, 8-5 America East) outplayed the Seawolves (6-20, 1-12) in nearly every facet of the Jan. 19 contest at Case Gymnasium. The Terriers outrebounded, outshot and out-hustled SBU for 40 minutes, and the result was a resounding victory.
Six Terrier players finished in double-figures, led by junior Jesyka Burks-Wiley’s 17 points. Both Burks-Wiley and junior point guard Christine Kinneary recorded double-doubles, and junior Amarachi Umez-Eronini finished just one board shy of joining her teammates.
The Terriers dominated the Seawolves inside, winning the rebound battle 61-39. Burks-Wiley led all players with 12 boards, while Umez-Eronini, sophomore Aly Hinton and senior Kasey Devine pitched in with nine, eight, and seven, respectively.
“We really felt our defense did a nice job with handling their team,” Greenberg said. “Of course, [Dana Ferraro, the conference's leading rebounder with 9.0 game] is such a great rebounder, so we really stepped it up on rebounding quite a bit. I think the girls felt pretty good after that game. We played well. We took care of it.
“But we can’t think about that game going into Saturday’s game. [Stony Brook] is a different team, and they’re playing much better basketball. They’ve been in every game recently, and on their home floor, they’re a lot better. We haven’t won there in a couple of years, so we can’t go into this game thinking anything about the last time we played them.”
The fact that the Terriers haven’t won at Stony Brook in their last four visits should really come as no surprise to members of this year’s squad, as BU has struggled to bring home victories from opponents’ arenas all season. The Terriers have dropped seven of their last eight road contests.
“We certainly hope [to get on a roll going into the America East Tournament],” Greenberg said. “It’s no secret that we’re struggling on the road. When we’re looking at these last three games, two of them being on the road, they’re going to be real challenges for us.”
Kinneary, who sprained her right ankle midway through the first half of Wednesday night’s victory over the University of New Hampshire, is optimistic about her chances of playing Saturday and expects to be back at full strength.
“It’s still bothering me a little bit,” Kinneary said. “I talked to our trainer, and I probably won’t go full-out at practice [today]. I’m going to see what I can do, and then I’ll definitely be able to play as much as the coaches need me to on Saturday.”
“Christine is a great leader,” Greenberg said. “She communicates well with all the coaches, so we’ll talk with her and if she thinks she’s ready to go, we will go with that. Christine, the warrior she is, she should be more than ready to go 40 minutes if she has to.”
Kinneary missed roughly six minutes of Wednesday’s first half, and returned with just over five minutes left before the break. She was in obvious discomfort, but the injury did little to hinder her performance.
Kinneary knocked down a key 3-pointer just minutes after returning, and made her presence felt on both ends of the court for the remainder of the game, scoring 12 points and dishing out a game-high seven assists.
The Terriers held the Wildcats to one field goal over the last 17 minutes of play, including a 20-0 run during which seven different Terriers registered points.
