Basketball, Sports

Terriers extend winning streak to 13 with win over Wildcats

Riding a 12-game win streak into its matchup against the University of New Hampshire, the Boston University women’s basketball team found itself in unfamiliar territory — facing a halftime deficit for the first time in conference play — but battled back in the second half to escape with a 55–53 victory.

Junior forward Rashidat Agboola connected on a layup to open the game and give the Terriers a 2–0 lead, but they quickly went cold, missing 10 consecutive shots before junior forward Whitney Turner put in a layup.

The Terriers struggled shooting in the first half, and they trailed 23–19 while taking a 25.9 shooting percentage into the locker room at halftime.

“We were missing a lot of shots,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg.  “We were getting the shots we wanted, [but] we just missed a lot of them.”

Scoring has not been an issue for the Terriers this season, as they currently sit second in America East with 63.2 points per game, trailing only the University at Albany.

In the locker room, Greenberg was faced with an anomalous task — rallying her players for a second-half comeback.

“I talked to them a ton about being sharper,” Greenberg said. “Every game we’ve been taking care of business, and all of the little things that we’ve been working on in practice we’ve been doing very sharply. And defensively, more than offensively, we weren’t so sharp.”

The Wildcats shot 45 percent from the floor in the first half while also shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.

The Terriers came out stronger in the second half, tying the score at 30–30 7:38 into the final frame. BU jumped out to a 54–38 lead 16:39 into the second half, but a 3-pointer by guard Cari Reed ignited a 15–0 UNH run to come within one point, 54–53, with four seconds remaining.

Reed fouled junior guard Danielle Callahan with two seconds left. Callahan made the first shot and missed the second, but senior guard Chantell Alford secured the offensive rebound to preserve the BU victory, 55–53.

Reed was UNH’s leading scorer with a game-high 22 points. She shot 8-of-15 from the floor and buried six treys while also grabbing 13 boards.

“There were some breakdowns that we had that gave [Reed] wide-open threes,” Greenberg said.  “Really only one of her six threes were contested, and she’s the type of player that if she’s open, she’s going to knock it down.”

Alford led the Terriers in scoring with 13 points.  She also added four assists and five rebounds to her stat sheet, and was named America East player of the week for the fifth time this season after averaging 17 points and five rebounds per game.

Alford shot 50 percent from long range, hitting eight of her 16 3-point attempts on the week. Against UNH, Alford was able to hit three shots from deep, putting her at 220 career threes made, the most in program history.

Also producing offensively was Agboola, who came close to yet another double-double with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Senior captain Mo Moran also scored in double figures, adding 11 points and five assists. Callahan connected on three treys to finish with 10 points.

The Terriers’ current 13-game win streak is reminiscent of last season when they were able to open conference play with a 13-game win streak. Their longest streak is 19 games, set by the 2008-09 squad.

Looking ahead, the Terriers will face one of their toughest tests of the season when they host Albany in Case Gym at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Great Danes are coming into this matchup a perfect 5–0 in conference play. The game will determine the sole owner of the top spot in America East.

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