How a 'rebuilding' year became a WNIT berth

It wasn’t supposed to happen this season.

After losing its top four scorers to graduation, the Boston University women’s basketball team wasn’t supposed to be competitive. 2009-10 was meant to be a transition year, a season to get the young squad’s feet wet while building for the future.

One of the best freshman Terrier classes in recent memory had something to say about that.

Rookie guards Mo Moran and Chantell Alford led BU (16-15, 11-5) to a bevy of accomplishments that few would have predicted. Third place in the regular season rankings. A semifinal berth in the America East Tournament. A second-straight appearance in the NIT. The program’s first-ever win over a nationally ranked team.

“People on the outside looking in see that we lost the four great seniors, so I don’t know what people’s expectations were,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “From day one, everyone on the team will tell you that I am pretty demanding and expect people to go hard and play better. From day one, the freshmen were a pretty big part of that. They really helped us get it going.”

The two freshmen were difference-makers at Case Gymnasium day-in and day-out. Moran finished the year 12th in AE with 12.4 points per game and fourth in assists with a per-game average of 4.3.

The record-breaking accolades belonged to Alford, however. The 5-foot-10 guard became the first Terrier in seven years to win the AE Rookie of the Year award. She also became the first freshman in 15 years to place on the conference’s First Team. To top it all off, Alford 15 points in the season finale gave her 447 points for the season, eclipsing Katie Terhune “04 for the BU freshman scoring record.

“I never really thought about [the record],” Alford said. “I just go into the game and play and try my best. I’m honored to be in the books though, it’s a great honor. I think [this season] was a huge success. I have my coaches and my teammates to thank. We worked hard all season and the coaches brought out the best in me.”

Alford finished the year third in the league in scoring with 14.9 points per game. Not far behind her was breakout sophomore guard Alex Young, whose 14.5 points per game placed her fourth and marked an increase of 10.4 over her freshman year.

Greenberg said she was highly impressed with the play of her guards this year.

“To watch Mo come in and do some of the things she did early on and continue it throughout,” she said. “Obviously, Alex really took off in her sophomore campaign. And obviously Chantell&- we recruited her and she really took off and had a wonderful freshman year.”

While the guards did the majority of the scoring, the forwards did their part by providing space for their backcourt teammates. Senior Aly Hinton, junior Kerry Cashman and sophomore Caroline Stewart got the majority of the minutes in the low-post.

“A lot of people don’t talk about Aly, Kerry and Caroline but those three had a great year,” Greenberg said.

Stewart led the team and placed fifth in AE with 7.3 rebounds per game. After starting 59-of-95 games coming into her senior year, Hinton transitioned well to a role off the bench and contributed 8.9 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game. She also became the fourth member of the 1,000-point, 700-rebound club in Terrier history.

“Wow,” Hinton said after the team’s last game. “I had an amazing four years and got to play with some really talented people and for some of the best coaches in the country.”

Although the squad had its fair share of successes late, the young squad still had to go through its series of growing pains early on in the season. A streak of strong opponents and tough defeats could have put the Terriers in an early mental hole as BU went 4-8 in its non-conference schedule.

“We played so many games early on without much rest,” Greenberg said. “But in the long run, I think we learned a lot from it. We were still figuring out who is going to play significant minutes and who’s not. I think a lot came out of that first weekend, especially against Kentucky who was a top 10 team most of the year.”

A return to AE play saw BU rack off five straight victories, capped by a 73-64 shocker over then-No. 24 University of Vermont, the program’s first-ever victory over a ranked team. Alford and Moran combined for 48 points in that game to upset the top-seeded Catamounts.

“We’ve watched that game several times, and it was a great college game, to be honest,” Greenberg said. “We got down early and I don’t think our freshmen realized how quick and deceiving [Vermont’s] guards were going to be. I think that was one of Chantell and Mo’s best games of the year.”

Uneven play the rest of the regular season prevented BU from knocking off the University of Hartford or Vermont from the top two seeds. Two nail-biting losses to the University of Maryland Baltimore-County, by a total of three points, compounded the team’s frustrations. Predictably, the basketball gods saw to it that BU would be seeded against UMBC in the first round of the AE tournament, the only lower-ranked team they had lost to all year.

“In both games, we thought we didn’t play up to par for us,” Greenberg said. “I think we went into the third game against them just really focused on being really aggressive, not letting [UMBC senior guard Carlee] Cassidy have easy looks.”

A double-double from Alford led the No. 3 Terriers to a 60-49 victory over the No. 6 Retrievers. Though the AE ride ended with a 69-52 loss to Vermont two days later, BU was able to earn a berth in the women’s NIT.

A first-round thriller against Providence College saw 12 lead changes define a fast-paced basketball game. A late miss by Alford allowed the Terriers to ultimately fall short, however, as PC pulled away with a 64-58 victory.

While disappointed with the loss, Greenberg was optimistic about the future.

“I know in a couple of weeks when I look back, we did really have a great season,” she said. “We want BU basketball to be a team to be reckoned with every single year. We weren’t resting on our laurels from last year. I’m looking forward to our freshman class continuing, because they still have a lot to learn.”

What could a freshman class that has already accomplished so much possibly have to improve on?

“I’d like to improve our overall strength,” Greenberg said. “I think we can be in better shape, and we will be. We have this summer, and I can’t wait to have our freshman class working with our strength coach for a longer period of time and getting into a shape that they can’t even imagine to exist right now.”