WEST HARTFORD, Conn. ‘- It was d’eacute;j’agrave; vu all over again for the top-seeded Boston University women’s basketball team in Saturday’s America East semifinal against fourth-seeded Binghamton University.
For the second day in a row, the Terriers jumped out to a big lead in the game’s first 10 minutes. For the second day in a row, they watched their opponent storm back and take the lead by halftime. And for the second day in a row, they found a way to escape with a victory ‘- this time by a score of 57-53 at Chase Family Arena.
‘I give our girls a lot of credit,’ BU coach Kelly Greenberg said. ‘We didn’t hit free throws. We are like a 78-, 79-percent shooting team, but we didn’t hit free throws. We missed layups. But we just gutted it out. We figured it out somehow. I just give all of our players a lot of credit that we figured out how to win that game.’
The Terrier defense completely suffocated the Bearcats (14-17) for the first 11 minutes, holding them to three points in that opening stretch. Binghamton went over 10 minutes without a field goal from the 1:39 mark to a Jackie Ward jumper at the 11:44 mark, and over six-and-a-half minutes without a point from the 5:12 mark until that same jumper.
BU (24-6) continued to bring the pressure at both ends, and a 3-pointer from junior forward Aly Hinton (11 points, 9 rebounds) with 5:41 left in the half gave the Terriers a 21-7 lead.
But Binghamton junior guard Erica Carter (11 points, 8 rebounds) answered with a trey of her own from the left wing, sparking a 16-1 Binghamton run that included seven points from freshman forward Viive Rebane (11 points, 11 rebounds) and gave the Bearcats a 23-22 halftime lead.
‘I think it was just our team having the energy and knowing that we can do this,’ Binghamton senior center Laura Franceski (8 points) said. ‘We wanted to be in that game. I think it was just our team wanting it that bad and not wanting to give up, ever.’
Friday against the eighth-seeded University at Albany, it was senior forward Jesyka Burks-Wiley who stepped up in the second half to keep the Terriers afloat. Saturday, it was another member of BU’s senior class who took over in the final 20 minutes ‘- guard Amarachi Umez-Eronini (23 points, 6 rebounds).
The America East Defensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-Conference selection poured in 17 second-half points, nine of which came from the free-throw line. She wreaked havoc on the Bearcat defense, continually driving to the rack and forcing Binghamton to foul just to slow her down. Three Bearcat starters wound up fouling out, and Umez-Eronini’s aggressiveness was the biggest reason why.
‘I really think they looked to attack us off the dribble,’ Binghamton coach Nicole Scholl said. ‘That really seemed to be the big difference. We had no answer for that. Our help-side defense wasn’t as solid as what it usually is. We didn’t step in early to take a couple charges. We seemed to be late on all of that.’
In a stretch of 2:07 starting at the 5:53 mark of the second half, Umez-Eronini went hard to the rim on four straight BU possessions. She made a layup on the first one and drew fouls on the next three, knocking down 5-of-6 shots from the charity stripe to give the Terriers a 36-30 lead.
Although senior guard Kristi Dini scored just one point and shot 0-for-5 from the field, Greenberg credited her presence on the floor as one of the key factors in Umez-Eronini’s ability to find so many open lanes.
‘I think, just like our game at Agganis [Arena] against Binghamton in early January, they don’t leave her,’ Greenberg said of Dini. ‘They stick to her like glue because of her 3-point shooting. That’s why the lane was open for us to get to the basket a little bit, because they just extended and stayed to her body. We were able to put it on the floor. We just kept playing that overload play for Amarachi to get to the basket because they weren’t helping, because they stayed with Dini.’
With 11:22 left in the game, Dini found freshman guard Alex Young for an open 3 to increase the lead to eight. But the Bearcats refused to go away, and back-to-back trifectas from freshman guard Andrea Holmes (9 points, 8 rebounds) and Carter cut the deficit to 41-39 with 7:27 to go. Four minutes later, Franceski made a tough layup under the hoop to give Binghamton its first lead since halftime.
But Umez-Eronini took charge again, scoring five of BU’s next six points ‘- including three more from the line ‘- to give the Terriers a 52-49 lead with under two minutes remaining. Two more freebies from Burks-Wiley (17 points, 7 rebounds) with 57 seconds left forced the Bearcats to start fouling on every possession.
The Terriers, who uncharacteristically struggled from the line all game (24-of-42), made 3-of-6 free throws the rest of the way ‘- just enough to close out the game.
BU will face the third-seeded University of Vermont Sunday at 6 p.m. in the America East championship game. It marks the Terriers’ fifth championship game appearance in six seasons. They have not won the tournament crown, however, since 2003. The Catamounts will make their first appearance in the title game since 2001 after defeating the second-seeded University of Hartford, 66-56, in Saturday’s second semifinal.
Full Court Press will have live coverage of the game at www.dailyfreepress.com/hoops.
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