The Boston University women’s basketball team survived both a rough start and a last-minute scare to defeat Stony Brook University 69-59 in the team’s first game at Agganis Arena since March 1 of last year.
Much like their previous game against the University at Albany, BU (14-11, 10-3) did not shoot the ball very well early. The Terriers started Wednesday’s game by shooting only 4-of-16 from the field over the game’s first 10 minutes. A 3-pointer by Chantell Alford (15 pts) from the left wing with 9:16 to go in the half broke a nearly six-minute stretch during which the Terriers did not make a single field goal. During that streak, Stony Brook (8-18, 6-8) was able to grab an 18-10 lead, which would be their largest of the game.
The Terriers stayed resilient as they have all season during conference play and rebounded in the latter minutes of the first half. Alford’s 3-pointer started a 25-7 BU run, giving them a 35-25 lead at the break. During that time, sophomore guard Alex Young scored nine of her 13 total points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Despite the double-digit lead, BU coach Kelly Greenberg did not believe the score reflected her team’s first-half and overall play.
“In all honesty, I think we’re starting out games very, very slow,” Greenberg said. “We need to be more focused. We need to be sticking with what we’re supposed to be doing as a team. As I told the team at halftime, the only reason we were winning at halftime is because we’re better. We’re a better team. We have better talent on our team, and that was the only reason, which isn’t a good reason.
“We have to outplay people. We have to out-focus people, and we haven’t the last two games. We’ve gotten away with victories, which is great, but our goal is to get better and I don’t think we’ve done that in the last two games.”
If BU’s goal was to get better in the second half, they did not truly achieve that one either.
After a rather uninspired first 10 minutes of the second period that saw BU keep Stony Brook at only an arm’s length away, the Terriers finally began to break away from the Seawolves as they went on a 7-0 run. The run was capped by junior guard Kat Briggs’ 3-pointer to give the Terriers a 13-point lead &- the largest for either side &- at 55-42 with a little over six-and-a-half to go in the game.
However, the Seawolves refused to go quietly. Stony Brook put on a late 15-6 run, keyed by eight points from junior forward Kirsten Jeter, to pull within four with 2:44 left.
It took an absolute dagger of a 3 from senior forward Aly Hinton (14 points, nine rebounds) with 69 seconds left to finally put the game safely in the Terriers’ hands.
Jeter ended with a game-high 22 points on 9-for-24 shooting. Although 24 shots seems like too many for one player to take, Greenberg seemed more than willing to allow Jeter that many opportunities.
“I always say if someone wants to take 24 shots, we like that because that means there’s other people who aren’t getting as many shots,” Greenberg said. “That’s the Allen Iverson Rule. You take that many shots and usually the other team will win so we’ll take that.”
With the win over Jeter and the rest of the Seawolves, the Terriers raised their record at Agganis to 6-2 in The Greek’s five-year history. Despite that record, do not expect the Terriers to abandon their home at Case Gymnasium any time soon.
“I enjoyed playing in Agganis,” Young said. “It’s nice to get a different feel, but we still love Case. I’ll definitely stick with Case.
