The Boston University women’s basketball team is composed of 13 student-athletes. BU coach Margaret McKeon believes they will need just as much of the student as the athlete to show up for Saturday’s game against Northeastern University (4-12, 2-3 AE) at 1 p.m. at Solomon Court.
‘I don’t want it to be a track meet. I want it to be a thinking game,’ said McKeon. ‘If it’s a thinking game, I think we can win.’
The Terriers (7-9, 4-1 AE) have used a half-court and full-court pressure zone defense for most of the season, and it has been successful enough to land them alone in second place in America East. They are 16th in the nation in steals, averaging 13 a game, three more per game than any team in America East.
McKeon plans on utilizing defensive sets besides the simple zone against a skilled Northeastern backcourt that provides most of the scoring for the Huskies.
‘I think with Northeastern we have to change up a lot. They have quick guards. Guards who can spot up and shoot,’ McKeon said. ‘But they’re not really the type of guards that are point guards and set things up and recognize different defenses.’
Northeastern’s two leading scorers make up their backcourt. Aisha Williams, 5’4′, leads the Huskies with 11.8 points per game to go along with Melissa Kowalski’s 9.6 points per game.
Kowalski, a junior, moved into first place last week on the all-time 3-point scoring list and now has sunk 145 shots from beyond the arc during her career. She scored 17 points, including 5-8 from the 3-point line, during the Huskies’ last game, a 73-70 win at home against Stony Brook University on Wednesday.
If the Terriers were to play a strict zone defense against her, they would run the risk of having Kowalski shoot 3-pointers all game to beat the zone. It’s a risk they’re not willing to take.
‘I think if we jump around, play different things and show them a lot of different looks, even though we might be in the same thing, they might be confused,’ McKeon said.
When they do play zone for a few minutes at a time, sophomore forward Adrienne Norris and junior forward Marisa Moseley will likely be at the heart of the zone with their long arms outstretched. The Terriers have used this set on various occasions during the season to force shooters, such as Kowalski, to try and shoot over defenders who have a size advantage.
Moseley and Norris will also play important roles as the Terriers try to create more of a post game on the offensive end. Along with sophomore Larissa Parr and junior Amparo Lopez, they will try to draw away some of the defensive attention that has been applied to the BU guards.
The bulk of the scoring has come from the guard tandem of junior Katie Terhune and freshman Katie Meinhardt. They have both scored double figures in each of the Terriers’ last six games.
The pair will try to make it seven games in a row in double digits, and extend the Terriers win streak to four games.
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