Dancin’: BU earns first-ever women’s bid

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

But then again, these aren’t the old Terriers. The old Terriers didn’t win games like these, let alone championships.

The old Terriers hadn’t beaten the University of Vermont in their last 15 tries, hadn’t advanced to the conference semifinals since 1995 and had never earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

But after three memorable victories at the America East Championship Tournament in Hartford, Conn. this past week, the Boston University women’s basketball team exorcised all of their demons and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament after a stunning 69-65 victory over conference powerhouse University of Maine in the championship game on Saturday, snapping the Black Bears’ 21-game win streak in the process.

The Terriers never trailed in the title game, although Maine drew within three in the closing minutes. With momentum swinging Maine’s way and the Terriers’ season hanging in the balance, freshman guard Katie Meinhardt delivered a dagger in the form of a three-point shot that punched a ticket to the Big Dance for BU.

‘Once it left her hands, I knew it was going in,’ said BU coach Margaret McKeon of Meinhardt’s clutch shot.

‘The whole journey of this season prepared us for this game,’ she said.

The Terriers entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed, and faced cross-town rival Northeastern University in the first round, a game that McKeon was greatly concerned about.

‘I felt the toughest game of the tournament was going to be the first one, just because of our experience last year,’ McKeon said, referring to last year’s disappointing first round loss to No. 7 seed Stony Brook University.

For 34 minutes against the Huskies, the Terriers seemed headed toward a similar fate. BU scored just 13 points in the first half and trailed by 14 with 5:56 left after Northeastern guard Mellissa Kowalski drained a three from the corner that seemed to put the game out of reach.

With the score 50-36 in favor of the Huskies, the Terriers did not panic and crept back behind tough defense and aggressive play on the offensive end that led to several layups and trips to the foul line.

At a media timeout with 3:51 on the clock, the Terriers had closed the gap to eight points, when Meinhardt received all the motivation she would need to take the game over.

‘[Assistant] Coach [Kathryn] Otwell looks over at me with four minutes left and goes ‘we’re going to win this game,” Meinhardt said.

Less than a minute later, Terrier guard, and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Katie Terhune found Meinhardt open outside the arc and Meinhardt drilled a three pointer that closed the lead to six points, 53-47. The Terriers then scored the next six points to tie it at 53 with 23 seconds remaining. After the Huskies were whistled for a backcourt violation, Meinhardt made Otwell’s prediction a reality by burying a short jumper from the baseline to put the Terriers up for good 55-53, capping a 19-3 run.

‘The bottom line is the kids put themselves in that position [to win],’ McKeon said of the late BU surge. ‘They gutted it out, they did everything with heart and desire and they played mistake-free basketball for six minutes, which is unheard of.’

In the semifinals, the Terriers faced the University of Vermont, a team they had not defeated since 1996. The Terriers were able to ride the momentum generated by their emotional win to leap out to a 15-4 lead. The Catamounts answered with a run of their own, overcoming the torrid start by BU to take the lead 22-19.

But, like they did throughout the entire tournament, the Terriers had an answer to the opposing team’s run.

Terhune scored eight points in a 10-0 Terrier run that ended with BU up 29-22 with 2:33 left to play in the first half. Sophomore forward Larissa Parr, who along with senior guard Alison Argentieri, joined Terhune on the All-Tournament Team and was instrumental in the Terriers’ first half success, scoring 11 points while grabbing six rebounds.

‘Coming into this game, we knew everybody on the floor had to score, it couldn’t just be the Katies,’ Parr said.

Vermont closed the gap to as little as three points in the second half, and with 4:41 left to play in the game, Vermont guard Theresa Larocque hit an open layup to make the score 50-46 in favor of BU. For the second consecutive game, Meinhardt delivered the clutch shot for the Terriers, knocking down a three that broke the Catamounts’ spirits and put the game in the hands of Argentieri, who responded by going six-of-six from the free throw line down the stretch, giving BU a 68-57 victory.

Argentieri and Terhune both finished with game-highs of 17 points while Parr added 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

The victory meant the Terriers would play Maine in the finals. The Black Bears came into the game winners of 21 consecutive games, including 18 straight against conference foes, and they even received three votes in the most recent ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Before what was easily the biggest game in the history of BU women’s basketball, McKeon sought advice from a colleague with plenty of big-game experience, BU men’s coach Dennis Wolff.

‘I called Dennis Wolff [before the game] and I asked him if he had any words of wisdom, and he said ‘Margaret, stay aggressive,” McKeon recalled in the post-game press conference.

The Terriers were clearly the aggressor in the early going, attacking the interior of Maine’s defense while jumping out to an 8-2 lead at the first media timeout. Parr hit her first three shots, all in the paint, while sophomore forward Adrienne Norris scored the Terriers’ other two points on a layup.

The Black Bears, perhaps too focused on the Terriers’ post players, fell victim to deadly long range shooting. Terhune and Argentieri each hit a three pointer as the Terriers forced Maine to burn a timeout with 13:19 left to play in the half, and the Terriers ahead 14-2.

This inside-outside game worked to perfection for BU, something Parr attributes to clutch shooting by her teammates.

‘If it wasn’t working inside, we brought it outside, Katie [Terhune] hit a lot of big shots for us, our guard play was phenomenal,’ Parr said.

Just like in the Vermont game, the Terriers’ initial run was quickly countered by their opponents. This time the Black Bears raced back into the game behind a 12-2 run that made the score 16-14, with BU maintaining the slight advantage.

Meinhardt narrowly beat the shot clock with a jumper to start yet another Terrier run. Terhune lost her defender with a clever pump fake and buried an open jumper, and then Norris found Parr open underneath for a layup. Terhune capped the 8-0 run with a catch-and-shoot jump shot, giving BU a 24-14 lead.

Terhune finished the half with 14 points, Parr was second on the team with eight and Norris grabbed six rebounds and had two big blocks on the defensive end. The Terriers entered the break up 14 points, 34-20, a margin that brought back bad memories of the previous meeting between these two teams. In that game, the Terriers led by 15 at half but the Black Bears stormed back to win by nine, capping off their perfect regular season.

What were the players thinking at half time?

‘Keep our composure,’ Terhune said. ‘We were almost scared to win (last time).’

The Terriers fended off numerous Maine runs in the second half until a 7-0 run fueled by Maine’s dominance on the boards – the Black Bears grabbed 25 offensive rebounds in the game – brought Maine within three, 60-57, with 2:43 left to play in the game. Meinhardt again stepped up and hit the big shot for the Terriers, this time a three from the corner that put BU up 63-57 with 1:47 left to play in the game.

‘We told the ladies that Meinhardt will be hiding in the corner,’ Maine coach Sharon Versyp said after the game. ‘That was a little bit of the dagger.’

Maine’s star player, America East Player of the Year Heather Ernest, credits Meinhardt and the Terriers for halting the Maine comeback with big shot after big shot.

‘All of the credit goes to BU for not being frazzled by our comeback,’ Ernest said.

The Terriers hit six of 10 free throws down the stretch to secure win, making BU the first team in America East history to knock off the top two seeds in the conference tournament, and in doing so secured the Terriers’ first ever bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Terriers were named the No. 16 seed in the East bracket of the tournament field and drew women’s hoops juggernaut and defending national champion University of Connecticut in the first round.

Connecticut enters the game as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, after suffering their first loss of the season last week, snapping a streak of 70 straight wins, the longest ever by a women’s team.

McKeon knows the odds are heavily stacked against the Terriers in this game, but the odds were against them to win the conference tournament too, especially after getting off to a 2-8 start. The team stuck together to finish 14-6, capping off possibly the most memorable season in BU women’s basketball history.

‘I have great kids, I’m fortunate every day to be around them.’ McKeon said. ‘We had our ups and downs this season, but we never gave up on ourselves and each other.’