The Boston University Women’s basketball team traveled north on Saturday to take on the University of Maine but ended up traveling south in the America East standings, losing, 78-73.
The Terriers were led by sophomore guard Kristi Dini and Junior tri-captain Cheri Raffo. Dini shot 5-of-6 from beyond the arc for 17 points, while Raffo shot 7-of-12 for the field and added 16 points of her own. Jesyka Burks-Wiley, who is still recovering from a knee injury suffered earlier in the season, also made a solid contribution, scoring 12 points and grabbing five rebounds in 24 minutes of play.
The Terriers (9-9, 1-4 America East) came out strong, scoring the first five points of the game on a Katie Meinhardt jumper and a Dini 3-pointer. Though BU kept the Black Bears (9-8, 3-3) scoreless for the first four minutes, Maine then went on a 10-0 run, which was capped off by Maine sophomore guard Brittany Bowen’s 3-pointer from downtown.
BU was able to tie the game at 20 on a Meinhardt free throw with 4:52 left in the half. But every time the Terriers tied the game, Maine had an answer. Finally, the Black Bears’ answer was too much for the Terriers to handle, as Maine finished the half on a 9-0 run, going into the locker room up 33-24.
“Our last five minutes of the first half weren’t our greatest, but we knew at halftime we were still in it and we had to bounce back and just play our game,” Dini said.
The second half began with a 3-pointer by Raffo, but Maine started to add its lead from there. At the 17:19 mark, Maine had their largest lead of the game, 43-30. Though faced with a double-digit deficit, the Terriers were not ready to pack it in. Consecutive layups by Aly Hinton and Raffo, followed by a 3-pointer from Dini brought the Terriers to within six.
With 3:38 left in the game and the Terriers down six points, Burks-Wiley went up strong in the paint to convert on an and-one bucket. Burks-Wiley’s three-point play brought BU within three, and on its next possession, Raffo was able to convert on a jumper from inside the paint to make it a one-point game with 2:48 remaining.
The Terriers would never come closer but drew within two with 0:21 seconds left in the game. They were not, however, able to contain Maine’s offense.
“We played very hard, especially in the last five minutes,” Dini said. “We had great looks on offense, came off screens hard, and hit some big time shots. We need to bring that energy and toughness of that last five minutes in all our games to follow.”
Maine’s leading scorer, Bracey Barker, went 7-of-13 for 22 points and sharp-shooter Ashley Underwood added 20, including 3-of-6 shooting from 3. Also scoring in double digits for Maine was 6-foot-1 forward Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa.
Despite their fourth league loss, there were some bright spots for the Terriers. Raffo, who BU coach Kelly Greenberg believed had began to look more like herself in the past couple of games, came out with a strong performance. The performance of Burks-Wiley was an even better sign for the Terriers. Her strong offensive output combined with her increase playing time shows both opponents and teammates that she is getting closer to a total recovery from her early-season injury.
“It’s hard coming back from an injury because you have to start all over, and I think Jess lost a lot of her confidence,” Dini said. “But she is an unbelievable player and a huge threat, so it was nice to see her confidence back because we need her offensive mentality when she’s on the floor.”
The Terriers will look to keep from starting their second losing streak of the season when they take on the University of New Hampshire at home on Tuesday. The game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at The Roof.