Not many people like to listen to broken records, or to put it in more modern terms, listen to an iPod with a broken shuffle button. But apparently the America East Conference can’t get enough of it.
Because once again, the same old saying surfaces: Any team in the conference can beat any other at any time.
The Boston University women’s basketball team has been trying to refute that statement all year, but every so often it creeps back into the picture and an underdog steals a victory.
The University of Maine (9-17, 5-10 America East) defeated BU (16-10, 9-6) Wednesday night, 69-66, at Alfond Arena in Orono. Senior Abby Schrader single-handedly took down the Terriers, recording a career-high 30 points and hitting the decisive 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in the contest. Previously, the center had attempted two 3-pointers on the season and missed them both. The shot was the first made 3 of her career.
“No one expected her to shoot it, not at all,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “We played great defense and then it was kind of like nothing else was open and it just went in. Even all of the media up here were shocked. She had her night, she was hitting everything. It was a killer shot for us.”
After an 80-61 loss at the hands of BU on Jan. 29 at Agganis Arena, Maine coach Ann McInerney was quoted as saying, “If I could have 11 Bracey Barkers’ on this team it would be wonderful.”
Maybe McInerney would like to revise the statement just a bit to include Schrader.
The 6-foot, 3-inch senior, who was held to just 11 points and seven rebounds in the teams’ first meeting, was an impressive 10-of-16 from the floor, 1-of a gigantic-1 from beyond the arc and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe. In addition, she hauled in nine boards, the sixth of which gave her the 600th of her career and helped Maine outrebound BU, 38-31.
The game had a back-and-forth flow for practically all 40 minutes, as neither team was really out of it. Maine led, 34-30, at the half and led by as much as nine in the second frame. But BU closed the deficit and led, 64-62, with 2:05 left to play. After a pair of free throws from Barker tied the game at 64-64, the teams traded misses before Schrader sunk the miracle trey.
“We put them on the free throw line way too much, and we fouled too much,” Greenberg said. “Their inside presence concerned us a lot and points in the paint killed us.”
This marks the second game in a row that BU has had trouble defending against a lineup of larger players, which might pose a problem in the America East Conference Tournament if the Terriers don’t start to play smarter on defense.
“We’re not happy with this game, we’re pretty down about it right now,” Greenberg said. “I think we think things are going to go our way and when they don’t we don’t respond well. We may not be as big as some of those teams, but we are smart and we know how to play smart defense, but we didn’t do that tonight.”
Something BU should be happy about is the fact that five Terriers scored in double digits — a first on the season. Freshman Jesyka Burks-Wiley led the team with 16 points off the bench. Junior Erica Kovach, playing through a nagging knee injury, added 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while Katie Meinhardt scored 11.
Both Rachael Vanderwal and sophomore Cheri Raffo netted 12 for BU. For Vanderwal, this was the 12th straight game in which she recorded double digits and the senior is currently the only player in America East to rank among the top 10 in points (12.8), rebounds (6.7) and assists (3.7) per game.
BU took a lead that seemed as if it was going to hold up late in the second half after switching to a 3-2 zone defense, but eventually Maine caught on and was able to score.
“We tried [the 3-2 zone]. We thought we’d mix it up,” Greenberg said. “They only had one 3-point shot all night and it threw them off a little bit. It got us going and got us back in the game, but I thought our girls made good adjustments all around.”
With only one game remaining in the regular season, one would doubt that making adjustments would be a good thing. But one area that may not be able to be adjusted is fatigue.
“I don’t think fatigue was a factor in all honesty,” Greenberg said. “I was really proud of our players tonight. I think we played a very solid second half. We went with our two smaller forwards playing for a period of time there. We were down nine and we did a lot of really positive things. In all honesty, if fatigue ever is a factor I’m never using it as an excuse. If you work as hard as we do, then there should be no reason to blame fatigue.”
Another excuse BU could make for the loss tonight – if it was in the business of making excuses – might be the fact that coming into the contest the Terriers had already locked up the No. 3 seed in the America East Tournament.
“I think we stressed a lot that this was a big game for them to try and move up in the standings,” Greenberg said. “And in all honesty, I keep thinking that we don’t have it locked, and no matter what you always want to play well. I think that for 30 minutes of tonight’s game we played well.”
