Revenge was the theme in Stony Brook University’s 72-54 demolition of the Boston University women’s basketball team.
This was the Seawolves’ (10-5, 3-1 America East) first shot at BU after the Terriers (9-6, 2-2) eliminated them from last year’s America East Tournament, a first-round contest where Katie Meinhardt dropped a Terrier record 43 points against ninth-seeded Stony Brook.
Revenge is a funny thing, though, because just as BU had jumped to a 14-4 lead in 2005 postseason contest, the Seawolves returned the favor and sprinted to a 20-4 advantage this time around.
“I don’t think that’s any reason or excuse for them to jump out on us,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “I don’t think they’re a better team than us, but it does fall into line that on any night, any team in our conference can beat any other.”
Standout junior guards Mykeema Ford and Jessica Smith combined for over 30 points for Stony Brook. Ford finished the night with 20 points and 10 assists. Smith scored 19, pulled in seven boards and grabbed three steals.
“The transition offense for them was perfect,” Greenberg said. “They were getting a lot of rebounds and pushing [the ball], and that created a tempo that Ford is comfortable with. We just gave her opportunities to score.”
Both members of Stony Brook’s dynamic duo have now scored in double digits for the 13th time this year. It was also the 13th time 6-foot, 1-inch sophomore Dana Ferraro had more than 10 rebounds in a game.
Ferraro, the eighth leading rebounder in the country, hauled down a whopping 23 boards.
“She’s one of those players that you can’t really do anything about,” Greenberg said. “She has a lot of energy, keeps moving and plays hard. She’s a Dennis Rodman-type player – has a nose for the ball and has energy. You just have to outhustle her.”
The Terriers were certainly out-hustled early on and were down, 42-26 after one half of play. Unlike their recent comeback against Binghamton University, the Terriers were unable to muster any sort of second-half charge against the Seawolves, whose relentless attack didn’t stop until the final buzzer.
BU did manage to trim the Seawolf lead to 28-22 with four minutes remaining before the break, but that was as close as it would get.
The Seawolves transformed 18 Terrier turnovers into 17 points and scored 10 off fast breaks. Add that to the Terriers’ 29.0 field goal percentage (11.1 percent from beyond the arc), and a bitter taste starts to rear its ugly head.
“It’s just one of those things in basketball,” Greenberg said. “You wish you knew the answer and you just don’t. We just came out flat. I think it was energy. I think games are won and lost by who has more energy, and I thought SBU came out with more of it.”
Senior co-captain Rachael Vanderwal finished the game one rebound shy of a double-double, leading the team with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Sophomore Cheri Raffo finished with 11 points, while senior co-captain Katie Meinhardt came off the bench to score 10. Also coming off the bench was freshman Jesyka Burks-Wiley, whose aggressive style of play got her eight rebounds and four points.
Erica Kovach, who entered the contest averaging 20.7 points per game in league play, was held to two points and 29 minutes due to early foul trouble.
Though losses are always hard to swallow, the Terriers are 5-1 after dropping one this season.
“We need to focus on the things we can control,” Greenberg said. “We know we’re going to miss shots, but we have to rebound and we have to get defensive stops, and we just didn’t do that tonight.”