It was a tale of two halves as the BU women’s basketball team let a one-point halftime lead slip away Saturday afternoon at Case Gymnasium, losing to eighth-ranked Vanderbilt University, 68-51.
Vanderbilt (1-0) started the second half hitting nine of its first 10 field goals as part of an 18-7 run that gave it the lead for good.
The Terriers (0-1) answered Vanderbilt’s offensive spurts with a few three-pointers, but couldn’t generate enough offense to keep up with the Commodores. BU shot 23.5 percent (8-34) in the second half, compared to Vanderbilt’s 68 percent (15-22).
‘They started to get tight. And once Vanderbilt started to make their run, which they were going to do, our kids kind of got back on their heels,’ said BU Coach Margaret McKeon. ‘The bottom line is we gave up 46 points in the second half and our defense has to be better than that.’
Junior guard Katie Terhune had a game-high 20 points for the Terriers, but didn’t score in the first half until 10 minutes had passed when she converted one of two free throws. Junior forward Marisa Moseley was second on the team in scoring with nine points.
‘We had shots that were open and plays in transition and we didn’t expect that to happen,’ said Terhune, explaining her early futility on offense. ‘Eventually we calmed down and started to shoot the ball well for the rest of the first half.’
Terhune continued to shoot well in the second half, keeping the Terriers in the game with her offense. When the Commodores started the second half with eight straight points, Terhune energized the crowd of 829 with a four-point play. She hit a three-pointer from the top of the key as Ashley McElhiney fouled her. Terhune hit the ensuing free throw to pull the Terriers back to within three points, at 30-27.
The game went back and forth from there, with Vanderbilt adding a 10-0 run in the middle of the second half to put the game out of reach, 55-37, with eight minutes to play.
‘We got to the point where we were kind of playing catch-up,’ said McKeon. ‘Playing catch-up against good teams is really tough.’
‘The transition game was what gave us those two spurts,’ said Vanderbilt’s first-year coach, Melanie Balcomb. ‘I thought the rest of the game was pretty even.
‘They came out with so much energy and did such a good job with their trapping and they stayed in that the whole game,’ Balcomb continued. ‘Our kids got used to the pressure as the game went along.’
BU’s defense reflected its intensity in the first half, as it held Vanderbilt’s All-American center, Chantelle Anderson, to as many points, four, as turnovers.
Using double and triple teams on Anderson, the Terriers frustrated her early and forced her to pick up two fouls and sit for over five minutes in the first half.
The Terriers’ success defending Anderson continued in the second half as she finished the game with the wrong kind of double-double, 10 turnovers to go along with her 11 points.
‘I thought we did a great job defensively on Anderson,’ McKeon said. ‘Larissa [Parr] and Amparo [Lopez] did a great job defending her.’
The task of defending Anderson came with a drawback. Junior center Amparo Lopez hit her head on the floor rebounding a missed foul shot with 5:47 left in the game. After a five-minute break, she was helped off the court, and later escorted out in a wheelchair as a precaution.
While the Terriers had an answer for Anderson, they didn’t have one for junior forward Jenni Benningfield. She led the Commodores with 16 points and 13 rebounds, helping to give Vanderbilt a 42-30 edge in rebounds. Junior guard Hilary Hager contributed 14 points, including a number of key hoops, to keep Vanderbilt in contention during the first half.
McKeon found some positives from the game despite the result, especially how her team reacted to the loss.
‘They were upset. They knew they let something slip out of their hands,’ said McKeon. ‘We really had an opportunity today and we just didn’t take advantage of it. It’s not that these kids don’t want it. You can’t say they didn’t play hard for 40 minutes.
‘I wish we just had a better second half,’ said McKeon.
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