Terriers fall hard, but walk away with lessons learned

STORRS, CONN. – The Boston University women’s basketball team headed to its first round NCAA Tournament game in Storrs, Conn. with hopes of putting on the Cinderella slipper so highly coveted by all schools in the tournament who are representing small conferences.

The University of Connecticut Huskies ended the Terriers’ hopes of a fairy tale finish to their season, but BU hardly left the game empty handed. The Terriers now have something that no BU team before them has had- NCAA Tournament experience. And while it’s hard to find many positives in a 91-44 loss, BU coach Margaret McKeon knows that her team’s journey has been invaluable in the development of Terrier basketball and the preparation of the team for next season.

‘In this experience you get an opportunity to measure yourself against the best,’ McKeon said, ‘And obviously we’ve got some work to do.’

Not as much work as the lopsided score would indicate, however, as the Terriers simply ran into the Huskies in the wrong place and at the wrong time. The game was played in front of more than 8,000 screaming Husky fans, and it was the first game for Connecticut since its streak of 70 consecutive wins was snapped by Villanova University in the Big East championship game.

Connecticut star player Diana Taurasi pointed out after the game that the score wasn’t totally representative of what the Terriers are capable of.

‘This BU team, you might look at the score and you might say, ‘Well, they must really stink’,’ Taurasi said. ‘But they’re a good team; they’re well-coached, they play hard.’

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma agreed with Taurasi.

‘It’s grossly unfair, they gotta play here on our home court,’ Auriemma added. ‘I think being at home makes the spread seem a lot worse.’

The Terriers were hurt by the Huskies’ pressure, depth and accuracy from long-range. But more so, BU was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar setting of a tournament game in front of such a raucous, partisan crowd.

‘Obviously this place is intimidating,’ McKeon said of Connecticut’s Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

The one Terrier who didn’t seemed to be fazed by the atmosphere was sophomore forward Adrienne Norris, who finished with a team-high 16 points. Norris came out aggressive and was able to maintain her intensity through the entire game, earning 14 trips to the foul line, accounting for all of the Terriers’ free throw attempts. While maybe not intimidated, Norris was definitely wowed by the crowd at Gampel.

‘It was quite an experience,’ Norris said. ‘I’ve never played in front of that many fans before.’

McKeon is hopeful that the Terriers will be eager to make it back next year so they can erase the memory of yesterday’s one-sided affair.

‘Hopefully this taste will be a little bitter and they’ll want to have a much better showing next year,’ McKeon said.

Now that the Terriers have one NCAA Tournament game under their belts, the team should be more prepared to focus first on reaching the tourney again next year, and then on putting together a better game. Next year is already on the mind of freshman guard Katie Meinhardt, who feels that the Terriers won’t be intimidated if they reach next year’s tournament.

‘We’d never been in this situation before [yesterday], and now we have, so when we come back, we can take that experience and it will help us come out stronger,’ Meinhardt said. ‘Hopefully, we get back here and do better in the coming years.’

While the game was hopefully the first of many March Madness experiences for Meinhardt, it was the first and last for two Terriers. Seniors Alison Argentieri and Rachel Werner both capped of their careers yesterday, and while a big loss was a disappointing end to the seniors’ four years at BU, the experience was still the best part.

‘It was a lot of fun, an unbelievable experience,’ Argentieri said. ‘It was a little disappointing, I guess you can say the experience was great, but not really what we wanted.’

Now that the Terriers have had their first trip to the Big Dance, they will be more motivated than ever to get back next season. In next year’s journey, the team can fall back on their big-game experience to propel them through the regular season and possibly to a more favorable first round pairing.

One thing is for sure, before the first practice or game next season, the Terriers are already more prepared and equipped to make another historic run. They’ve always had the talent, coaching and work ethic, and now they have the experience.