Basketball, Sports

Women’s basketball set to clash with Raiders for 2nd time

Following a successful weekend against Lafayette College, the Boston University women’s basketball team will look to get a winning streak going back home at Case Gymnasium Wednesday evening when it takes on Colgate University.

The Terriers (9-16, 4-8 Patriot League) faced the Raiders (5-18, 1-11 Patriot League) in Hamilton, N.Y., Jan. 15. BU left that game with a sour taste in its mouth, falling to Colgate by an 81-64 margin.

“It was a game at their place that was really quite a blur to us,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “We aren’t happy when we go back and look at the tape, and it was a game [where] we just feel like we didn’t do anything well.”

This time around, however, looks to be different. BU is coming into its own offensively and hopes to keep up the same intensity that it has been giving in recent games.

Much of the offensive production has come from senior forward Rashidat Agboola and junior forward Mollie McKendrick. The two forwards have been the keys to the Terriers’ success as of late, combining for 117 of BU’s 172 total points in its last three games.

In that span, the pair has shot 54.5 percent and 50 percent from the field, respectively. In addition, Agboola has sunk 16 of her last 19 free throws.

Defensively, BU has played stronger in the past few contests, holding Lafayette (12-11, 6-6 Patriot League) to 59 points last time out. Greenberg said she is pleased with her squad on the defensive end and is optimistic that BU will keep up the defensive strength that it has shown these past few games.

“I just really hope we continue from our Navy second half and our Lafayette game,” Greenberg said. “Our defense has been really great mixing up our zone and man. I’m looking forward to continuing that, hopefully.”

On Colgate’s end, the Raiders have not won a game since the Terriers went to visit back in mid-January in a win that snapped a six-game losing streak. The team has played well offensively, but is on a seven-game losing skid.

“In their last four, five games they’ve been scoring a lot,” Greenberg said. “Their guard, Missy Repoli, is really on fire from three,” Greenberg said. “Her most previous game against American [University], and the game before that against [the College of the] Holy Cross, she’s shooting [well] from three, so we’ll certainly be talking about her … and making sure we know where she is on the court.”

In those two games, Repoli shot 75 percent from the floor and made six of her seven 3-point attempts, which is good for 85.7 percent from beyond the arc. On the season, she has made 42.9 percent of her field-goal attempts and 43.5 percent of her 3-pointers.

Repoli is third on the team in total points (186) and points per game (8.1) to fellow juniors Carole Harris and Mariah Jones, who have averaged 12.4 and 9.9 points, respectively.

Harris has 70 points in her last five games and is shooting 40.1 percent in that time. Jones has a less impressive 39 in her last five and seems to be going through a bit of a rough patch, as she is only shooting about 29.2 percent from the field, 10 marks short of her season average.

As a team, the Raiders shoot about 35.9 percent from the field with a 32.2 percent success rate from 3-point territory.  The Terriers, in comparison, pot their shots 36.9 percent of the time and make roughly 32 percent of their tries from beyond the arc. Colgate is, on average, outscored by its opponents by a 10.6 point margin and allows teams to hit a solid 42.8 percent of shots.

Despite their less-than-desirable record and statistics, the Raiders have the upper leg over BU in some conference statistics. Colgate has the Terriers beat in points per game (though BU has scored more total points), 3-point percentage, 3-point defense, rebounds, steals and turnover margin.

“Colgate plays very hard, they mix up their defenses quite a bit,” They do good things. We just have to be ready for whatever they’re doing defensively and really take it to them offensively.

To beat Colgate, BU needs a strong plan of action, and Greenberg said the team needs to be ready to adapt.

“We can’t have one set plan,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got to be ready for anything.”

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