Too many turnovers and a lack of ball control stalled the offense and spelled doom for the Boston University women’s basketball team in an American East Conference loss to Northeastern University over the weekend.
It was a close game at the half with BU ahead 36-35. The half had been characterized by sloppy play on both sides, and carelessness with the basketball. Unfortunately that trend continued for BU in the second half. The second was all Northeastern as the Huskies built up an insurmountable lead that BU could not recover from.
Turnovers played a key role in the loss, although the statistics are a little misleading. BU committed 18 turnovers on the day leading to 16 points for Northeastern. Northeastern committed 24 turnovers on the day, which BU capitalized on for 25 points. While the statistics might suggest that BU wasn’t hurt by the turnovers, that wasn’t the case. Every BU player except junior center Amparo Lopez had at least one turnover. Star junior guard Katie Terhune committed four of the team’s turnovers on the day.
‘I just thought we had no flow to our offense today,’ said BU Coach Margaret McKeon. ‘They outplayed us from inside out.’
The lack of flow could be attributed to the fact that BU didn’t take always take care of the ball after forcing a turnover. There were multiple times during the course of the game when BU stole the ball, and then turned it right back over.
BU, on more than one occasion, played solid defense to force Northeastern into a turnover and then threw long careless outlet passes that resulted in immediate turnovers. In cases like these, BU didn’t even get to attempt a shot on offense after working so hard to prevent Northeastern from scoring.
This inability to capitalize on good defense further stalled the offense, which was almost non-existent in the second half. BU shot just 29 percent in the second half and 34.8 percent for the game, while Northeastern shot 50 percent in the second half and 48.9 percent for the game.
At one point in the second half, BU went almost seven minutes without a field goal. The Terriers committed three turnovers during that span, and didn’t force any on Northeastern. It was that span that really took BU out of the game for good.
Terhune, who scored a game-high 22 points, finally scored a scored a field goal to bring BU within eight. After a defensive stop, sophomore forward Larissa Parr scored on BU’s next possession to cut the Northeastern lead to six.
After stopping Northeastern on its next possession, the Terriers then hurt themselves with a turnover on the next possession. Northeastern regained the ball and BU picked up two fouls. Parr got her fourth personal with 10 minutes to go in the quarter, and then Lopez picked up her second personal.
The final score and the turnover statistics don’t indicate how one-sided the game was in the second half. BU picked up nine points with less than two minutes left in the game. This stretch also padded the points off turnovers statistic. BU forced five steals during this period of time, when the game had already been decided and Northeastern had emptied its bench.
Saturday’s game was a very careless performance the Terriers are no doubt eager to put behind them. Sloppy play plus a stagnant offense was a recipe for disaster against a conference and cross-town foe.
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