The Boston University women’s basketball team is 5-2 in its last seven games after Saturday’s loss to the University of New Hampshire, but coach Margaret McKeon is concentrating on a goal that was set at the beginning of the year.
“We want to put ourselves in a position to finish in the top four,” McKeon said. “That was our goal coming into the season.”
The problem is that her plan to accomplish it is easier said than done.
“For us to do that, we have to win out,” McKeon said.
The Terriers have a varied schedule coming up. Some games are against weaker teams and are must-wins, and some are games in which the Terriers will be the underdogs.
“We can’t have any slip ups; today [against New Hampshire] was our slip up,” McKeon said. “This is the only one we’re allowed.”
Saturday’s game wrapped up a three-game homestand for the Terriers, leaving them with only one of their last five at Case Gymnasium.
The team travels across town to face Northeastern University on Thursday, then plays at the State University of New York at Albany on Saturday. With a combined conference record of 3-17, the Huskies and Great Danes are easy games on paper, but those opponents have proven tough this season.
The Terriers won by 13 at home to Northeastern, but Albany, which is 0-9 in the America East, took the Terriers to overtime before falling by six.
The lone home game that remains is against SUNY-Stony Brook, an opponent who defeated the Terriers by seven back in January. The Seawolves lost a tough game on Saturday to the University of Maine and are now sitting at 5-4 in conference, while the Terriers are 6-5.
BU will say goodbye to the Roof after Feb. 21, traveling north to the University of Maine and playing New Hampshire again before heading south to Hartford for the America East Tournament.
“We still can finish maybe third,” McKeon said. “But now we’re basically tied for fourth with New Hampshire. We could’ve separated ourselves from New Hampshire [Saturday], and we didn’t.”
McKeon’s passion for winning has rubbed off on her team, which has developed a blue-collar-type work ethic this season, an attitude that will be necessary as it makes a run toward the conference tournament. “I told them that already,” McKeon said. “I said, ‘Enjoy tomorrow off, because Monday we have to come to work. Bring your lunchpails and your hardhats, because we gotta go.'”
When looking at the last six games of the season, Saturday’s loss was obviously not what the coach had in mind when she saw the end of the season approaching. McKeon may be emotional on the sidelines, but she is always happy when her team puts 100 percent into the game, something she says didn’t happen on Saturday.
“Anytime as a coach,” McKeon said, “as long as we go out and we compete and play well, and we get beat, I can live with that. I mean, I hate losing. Today, we went out, but we really didn’t compete to win. I thought we were very tentative; we weren’t accustomed to losing. It was a weird thing out there.”
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