Saturday afternoon marked the end of multiple streaks for the Boston University women’s basketball team. The Terriers dropped both their first home game and their first conference game of the season during a 48-41 loss to the University at Albany.
“Unfortunately it just wasn’t our day,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “From the get go. We have no excuse.”
BU (20-7, 13-1 America East) lost its first conference game of the season, snapping its 13-game winning streak during which it dominated conference opponents over and over again. Saturday’s loss to Albany (19-9, 13-2 America East) marked the second time this season the Terriers struggled against the Great Danes, as the last time the teams played BU came off with a narrow 58-54 victory.
“It was disappointing to lose on our home court, not really looking like we look,” Greenberg said. “The only disappointing thing about the loss is that we went down not playing our game.”
Both teams struggled to score, with Albany holding BU to a 29.8 percent (17-of-57) field goal percentage as the Terriers struggled offensively all game.
Senior forward Caroline Stewart led BU with 14 points and nine rebounds. She was aided offensively by sophomore forward Rashidat Agboola, who also collected nine boards to go with her four points.
Junior guard Chantell Alford, the Terriers’ leading scorer, struggled offensively, scoring only four points while collecting four defensive rebounds.
“Unfortunately for us, Chantell wasn’t bringing the ball up a whole lot for us, as she usually does,” Greenberg said.
However, BU was not the only team with offensive difficulties. Despite shooting 34.5 percent in the first half, Albany went 6-for-25 in the second, ultimately finishing with a slightly lower scoring percentage than the Terriers (29.6 percent).
Due to an opening 15-0 run by Albany, BU never led in the game. Freshman guard Troi Melton played well, chipping in six points for the Terriers, including their first points of the game.
“Every team is going to play us really hard,” Stewart said. “They came out and did what they wanted to do and we let them do it.”
After two baskets from Melton, the Great Danes continued to expand their lead, breaking the game open with a 29-11 lead with a little less than five minutes left in the half. The Terriers entered halftime trailing 33-17.
The second half opened with two baskets by Stewart who, after a 5-0 run by the Great Danes, started off a 9-0 run for the Terriers with another basket. The run brought the Terrier within 10 points of Albany.
Over the next few minutes BU got within eight points, thanks in large part to Stewart’s continued strong play. Despite this, and strong defensive play in the final minutes of the half, the Terriers did not catch up with the Great Danes.
Albany continuously shut the Terriers down defensively, forcing 20 turnovers, the most so far this season by the Terriers in conference play. The Great Danes also held a small 43-41 rebound margin over BU.
“We have to fight through our injuries and be tough every game,” Greenberg said. “And that’s what we’re going to take from this game.”
Despite this loss and the team’s failure to clinch first place in America East, Greenberg remains confident in her team.
“We’re going to win the league. We’re going to be in first place,” Greenberg said. “It just didn’t happen today.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
