As the country was sleeping off its turkey hangover Thanksgiving weekend, the Boston University women’s basketball team fought its way to the championship round of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro Thanksgiving Tournament.
BU (4-2) came out firing on all cylinders in its first round game, a 69-42 romp of UNC-Greensboro on Friday. Starting the game on a 33-8 run during which eight different Terriers put points on the board, BU benefited from big games by junior Jesyka Burks-Wiley, sophomore Aly Hinton and junior Christine Kinneary.
Burks-Wiley scored a season-best 19 points while pulling down seven rebounds. Her 19 points were just one shy of her career mark, set Jan. 24, 2006 against the University at Albany.
Hinton’s 10 points were a slight drop-off from her performance in the team’s previous game, a 94-84 shoot-out victory over Northeastern University. Then again, that 35-point performance at Case Gym last Monday was bound to be a tough act to follow.
Kinneary, team tri-captain and textbook point guard for the Terriers, dished out nine assists while scoring a respectable six points of her own.
The Terriers lost Saturday’s championship showdown with the North Carolina A’T State University (4-1), 62-54. BU fell behind when the Aggies went on a 20-4 run midway through the first half, giving them a 16-point lead they would not relinquish.
The Terriers made a failed charge in the second half, cutting the lead to as close as three points, but the Aggies ended with 10 free throws in the game’s final three minutes and pulled away with an eight-point victory and a tournament championship.
Senior Kasey Devine’s 14 points and seven rebounds led Terrier scorers. Burks-Wiley added 10 points of her own as well.
As a team, the Terriers shot just 27.7 percent from the field and an abysmal 9.1 percent from beyond the arc. Saturday’s game was especially disappointing for senior Cheri Raffo, who scored 13 points despite shooting just 6-of-17 from the field, including a dreadful 1-of-9 from 3-point land.
The Terriers will host the University of Massachusetts (2-4) at Case Gym on Wednesday at 7 p.m.