Terriers improved but still battled lows

(The following is part one of a two-part series, reviewing the Boston University women’s basketball team’s 2000-01 season.)

The Boston University women’s basketball team’s season started with an embarrassing blowout loss to lowly Yale University at The Roof on Nov. 18. It ended with a hard-fought loss to NCAA tournament-bound University of Delaware at the America East tournament in Burlington, Vt., on Thursday afternoon. In between, the Terriers had more than their share of highs and lows, with a record of 10-19 as the final product.

The season started on an ominous note before the Terriers had even played a game. Junior point guard Pilar Verde, who joined BU midway through last season and was expected to provide a young team with some much-needed experience on the floor, bruised a bone in her ankle early in the preseason. The transfer from Spain probably wouldn’t have helped the Terriers a whole lot in their season debut, as lightly-regarded Yale, whom the Terriers had beaten in all seven prior meetings, waxed the Terriers, 81-60, at The Roof. The Terriers didn’t score until almost seven minutes and 11 shots into the game, shot 28 percent from the field, trailed by 18 points at halftime and were absolutely lit up from the perimeter, as Yale sophomore guard Maria Smear torched BU for 25 points and seven three-pointers.

“That was about as poorly as we could play,” BU coach Margaret McKeon said at the time. “We couldn’t even guard our own shadow, never mind anyone with a Yale uniform on.”

The consolation game against Miami University (Ohio) the next day was definitely more competitive, but it began a pattern that would recur later in the season. The Terriers blew a 16-point first half lead and lost to the Red Hawks in overtime, 102-97. This was one of the Terriers’ sloppiest ball-handling performances of the season, as they turned the ball over a whopping 35 times, 22 of them after halftime. They also committed 33 personal fouls. Only a team freshman record 30 points from guard Katie Terhune, and a couple of clutch threes late in regulation by sophomore guard Alison Argentieri, allowed BU even a chance at winning that one.

BU’s performance did improve the next two weekends, as they posted splits at the First Tennessee Bank Tournament in Nashville (hosted by Vanderbilt University) and the Lady Mustang Classic at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Verde returned to full action that week, as BU came home and beat the University of Maine, 86-64, at The Roof on Dec. 5 to improve to 3-4 on the year, and it looked like the Terriers might just be able to turn their season around. But two days later in practice, Verde broke an ankle completely, ending her season.

Indeed, injuries, blown leads, turnovers and inconsistency on defense, were the story of this season for the Terriers, their 10th losing campaign in 11 years. BU averaged 20.1 turnovers a game this season and had the second-worst assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference.

In addition to Verde’s injury, freshman center Michelle Carr saw action in only six games this year due to various ailments, while Terhune and fellow freshman Lashaunda Mitchell had to deal with nagging injuries most of the season. The various injuries prevented McKeon from using as deep a rotation as she would have liked, especially at the guard spot.

On top of that, the Terriers lost six games this year in which they held a halftime lead, including a gut-wrenching 57-49 loss at Northeastern University on Feb. 3 in which BU led by 14 points at halftime, fell behind, rallied to take a five-point lead with seven minutes remaining, but then missed 10 of their final 12 shots. It was probably the lowest point of a mid-season, 10-game losing streak that cost BU any chance of a .500 season.

However, there were certainly some high points for BU this year. While a 10-19 record is only a two-win improvement over last year’s 8-21 mark, it was still BU’s first double-digit win total since 1996, and only its third such season since 1990. Included in those 10 victories was BU’s first regular season sweep of Maine since 1993. In the rematch in Orono on Feb. 23, BU gutted out a 61-54 win for its first triumph in Orono in eight years.

“I would say our biggest win of the season was beating Maine at Maine,” McKeon said. “It showed our kids that they can play on the road. I’m not saying that Maine was one of the best teams this year, but [Orono] is a tough place to play regardless of the strength of their team. And we hadn’t won there in eight years.”

After beating last-place Towson University to snap the losing streak, BU went on to win four of its last six regular season games, which put them into eighth place in the conference. In their first-round conference tournament game against Hofstra University, the Terriers beat the Pride, 82-72. BU shot 50 percent from the field, turned the ball over nine times, had 25 assists and had five players score in double-figures.

“[The first round win over Hofstra] was our most efficient offensive performance of the season,” McKeon said. “I don’t think that we’ve had 25 assists in a game all season. We also had very balanced scoring, and if you want to be a good basketball team in the America East, you have to have balanced scoring.”

Despite having to play top-seeded Delaware less than 24 hours later in the quarterfinal round, BU was up to the challenge. They led the Blue Hens by as much as 10 points midway through the first half, and held the lead for most of the game. But a stunning upset was not in the cards on this day, as Delaware rallied to end the Terriers’ season, 67-49, then went on to beat the University of Hartford and the University of Vermont to earn their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament.

“I felt that the Delaware game was going to be a game of runs,” McKeon said. “We had two close games with them in the regular season. I think that our big run came too soon. If we would have had a stretch in the second half like we did in the first half, I think that we would have had an opportunity to win the game.”

With all but one player returning next year, the future appears bright for the Terriers. But while the Terriers have improved in certain areas (such as scoring offense, up to 64 points per game from 57 last year), McKeon acknowledged that they have a lot to improve on if they hope to better their record next year.

“We still need to rebound the ball better if we’re going to make a run for this next year,” McKeon said. “We also need to work on our outside shooting. I thought that we shot the ball better than last year, but we still need a consistent three-point threat. We also have to work on our interior defense.”