The Boston University women’s basketball team has been riding the coattails of their team defense and the offense generated by a couple of Katies. In their 59-37 loss to the University of Maine on Wednesday, the Terriers got neither. The Black Bears scored at will and guards Katie Terhune and Katie Meinhardt combined for just 10 points on 3-for-18 shooting.
The Black Bears (13-4, 6-0 America East) raced out to a 28-6 lead and never looked back, maintaining at least a 20 point advantage over BU (7-11, 4-3 America East) for the rest of the game. The Black Bears won their sixth straight conference game while BU dropped their first home game of the year against a conference opponent.
The Terrier defense, which has overwhelmed opponents all year long, was torn apart in the first half by a patient Maine offense. The Black Bears’ patience translated into unselfishness, netting the team 19 assists as they routinely beat the Terrier zone to get easy shots in the paint.
‘I thought they did a nice job in the first half, slicing us up,’ BU coach Margaret McKeon said.
‘That’s what they do, they don’t shoot threes, they attack it inside.’
The defense stepped it up over a five-minute stretch in the first half, keeping the Black Bears off of the scoreboard. Unfortunately for the Terriers, the offense never found its groove during that stretch, and the scored stayed level at 26-6 until Maine guard Ellen Geraghty hit a layup setup by a pass from teammate Kim Corbitt, who finished with a game-high nine assists.
‘We got the stops we needed, if we could have got 10 points [during the stretch] then we go into the locker room probably down 10 or 8 and it’s a whole new ball game,’ McKeon said. ‘We were down 10-4 and we never got back into the game from that point on.’
The offensive ineptitude can be attributed in large part to the ineffective play of Terhune and Meinhardt, who weren’t alone in their shooting woes as the team shot a combined 18.5 percent from the field. The Terriers’ tenth field goal of the game came when Meinhardt knocked down a three with two seconds left in the game.
‘Our shooting percentage was terrible,’ sophomore guard Adrienne Norris said. ‘So our team decided to work it inside.’
‘Our guards, who have been scoring for us, just went south,’ McKeon added. ‘Katie Meinhardt has brought a lot of energy to our team, as she goes our team goes.’
‘I don’t think Katie Terhune has been our go-to player all year long. She’s our scorer, but, I think our team really feeds off [Katie Meinhardt].’
Meinhardt’s troubles started early, when she missed an open layup after a beautiful pass from Terhune. She struggled to 2-for-12 shooting for the field, although she knocked down two of five shots from downtown.
‘I thought Katie Meinhardt played like a freshman today, unfortunately,’ McKeon said.
On the bright side for BU, they don’t play again until next Thursday. The time off should allow for the banged-up Terriers to get some players back from injury. Norris and freshman guard Rachael Vanderwal should start practicing on a more regular basis. The layoff couldn’t come at a better time for Terhune and sophomore forward Larissa Parr, both of whom have been battling injuries over the recent weeks.
The loss lowers BU into a tie for second place in the conference with the Northeastern University Huskies, who beat the Terriers 72-63 last Saturday. The conference schedule isn’t even halfway over though, and McKeon is optimistic that her team, when healthy, is more than capable of defeating the top teams in the league.
After the layoff the Terriers head up to New York to battle the University at Albany and Binghamton University. Both Albany and Binghamton are in the middle of the pack of teams trailing the Black Bears in the America East standings. The parity so far in the conference all teams behind Maine are within two games of each other is an indication that the Terriers must not look past any opponent the rest of the way.
The Terriers hope to rebound from this recent two-game skid that has seen the team mired in one of its worst shooting slumps in recent memory. With eight days to regroup and get healthy, McKeon and the Terriers should be ready to get over this bump in the road and continue their drive toward a conference title.
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