After slow start, hot women’s hoopsters host Wildcats

The Boston University women’s basketball team hosts the University of New Hampshire tonight at in a matchup of two of the top teams in America East.

The Terriers (6-9, 3-1 America East) come in on a roll, winners of four of their last five games, and look to continue their early season conference success against the visiting Wildcats. New Hampshire (7-7, 2-1 America East) returns four starters from last year’s squad who handed the Terriers a 56-49 defeat at ‘The Roof’ a year ago.

Terrier coach Margaret McKeon hopes to build on the defensive effort handed out by BU in its last outing against the University of Hartford, a 70-65 Terrier win. BU snatched 16 steals en route to the victory and McKeon feels the press will be just as effective against the Wildcats.

‘I think that it’s going to be effective for us [against New Hampshire]…because they really don’t have great guard play,’ McKeon said after Saturday’s game.

While New Hampshire’s guard play may be lacking, the Wildcats make up for it with their frontcourt, headed by six-foot three-inch junior center Maren Matthias, who leads the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding for the second year in a row. In fact, Matthias leads all of America East in rebounding with 10.4 per game while her 15.6 points per game are good enough for sixth best in the conference.

For the Terriers, the majority of the scoring will likely be done by the guards. Junior guard Katie Terhune is enjoying another excellent season, averaging 17.7 points per game. Freshman guard Katie Meinhardt is averaging 9.6 points per game, but has flourished since being added to the starting lineup, reaching double figures in scoring five straight times and twice being named the America East Rookie of the Week.

Sophomore forward Larissa Parr has also been key for the Terriers over their recent 4-1 stretch, joining Meinhardt in scoring double digits each game while pulling down five rebounds a game.

Another potential problem area for the Terriers is the success the Wildcats have enjoyed on the boards so far this year, out-rebounding their opponents by more than four rebounds a game on average. Rebounding is one area the Terriers need to improve, and tonight’s game will be a good indication of just where they stand.

‘We’re having a little problem with rebounding,’ McKeon said.

The Terriers are slowly recovering from the grueling non-conference schedule they saw in the early part of the season. After a 2-8 start, BU is up to 6-9 overall, and the experience gained from playing national powerhouses such as Stanford University and Vanderbilt University seems to be paying off for the Terriers as they battle for the top spot in the conference standings.

With a win, the Terriers would be off to their best five-game conference start since the 1989-1990 season, when they began play in the North Atlantic Conference at 5-0. Last year, BU began America East play with a 2-3 record before turning things around and finishing 10-6 in conference and 17-11 overall.