The Boston University women’s basketball team plays host to Stony Brook University tonight at Case Gymnasium, and with a win, the Terriers will strengthen their hold on second place in the conference while narrowing the gap between them and the undefeated University of Maine.
The Terriers are looking to complete a SUNY sweep, which began last Thursday with a win over the University at Albany and continued with a convincing victory over Binghamton University on Saturday. The third leg should be more difficult than the first two as Stony Brook is currently in the middle of the America East pack, while fellow New Yorkers Albany and Binghamton are in the bottom half of what BU coach Margaret McKeon calls a ‘top heavy’ conference.
‘I thought the eighth place team [last year] could give the first place team a run for its money,’ McKeon said, ‘but this year the bottom half really can’t compete with the top half.’
The Seawolves currently mark the dividing line between contenders and pretenders in the conference standings, and they played like both during their previous meeting with BU. In that game, an 88-76 Terrier victory, Stony Brook jumped out to a 46-37 halftime advantage only to be completely dominated by BU in the second half, with the Terriers outscoring the Seawolves 50-31.
Stony Brook is led by preseason All-Conference selection Sherry Jordan, who is currently averaging 15.9 points per game. While there will be a lot of emphasis on containing Jordan, the Terriers can make things easier by executing offensively against one of the weakest defenses in the America East the Seawolves allow an average of 72.3 points per game, by far the worst in the conference.
‘If we can stay within our offensive sets and break them down defensively and offensively, it doesn’t have to be a long night,’ McKeon said.
The Terriers recently enjoyed an eight-day layoff between games, something that has allowed the team to get as healthy as it has been all year, and the team has responded accordingly. After two impressive road victories the Terriers return home with momentum they will look to build on in tonight’s game.
‘We have like eight or nine people right now that are healthy enough to play in games and we haven’t had that [this year],’ McKeon said.
‘Last week I thought we played pretty good,’ McKeon continued, ‘I think that we’re playing better basketball at this time [compared to the first Stony Brook game].’
One Terrier who has stepped her game up as of late is junior center Amparo Lopez. In the Terriers’ 61-49 win over Binghamton, Lopez scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed a game-high nine boards, showing no ill-effects of the injuries that hampered her earlier this year.
‘Now she’s 100 percent,’ McKeon said, ‘We need to make her a focal point of our offense and defense.’
Lopez’s emergence should create more open looks for the Terriers’ stellar guards, junior Katie Terhune and freshman Katie Meinhardt. Open looks tonight will hopefully translate into a lot of made baskets for the Terriers, who shot a blistering 62.1 percent in the second half during the last meeting between the teams.
McKeon knows the Terriers can’t afford to overlook the Seawolves, a team eager to prove it can play with the heavyweights.
‘They play with a lot of heart and desire they’re very feisty,’ McKeon said, ‘We’ve got to be able to come prepared.’
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