Although the Boston University women’s basketball team will not be going to the NCAA Tournament, it will be making an appearance in postseason play for just the second time in program history.
The Women’s National Invitational Tournament announced Monday night that BU (24-7) will be hosting Central Connecticut State University (18-13) at Case Gymnasium on Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Terriers, who will be making their first-ever appearance in the WNIT, earned an automatic bid by winning the America East regular-season title, but they fell short of their ultimate goal of an NCAA Tournament appearance when they lost to the University of Vermont in the America East championship game on Sunday.
BU coach Kelly Greenberg gave her staff and players a full day off on Monday to recuperate, and it paid off with an upbeat practice on Tuesday.
‘We didn’t have practice yesterday, just some time to swallow the loss and deal with it,’ senior co-captain Christine Kinneary said after Tuesday’s practice. ‘It’s nice to keep playing. It’s nice to come up to Case and be with the team after a loss like that.
‘We’ll just try to bounce back and get ready for Thursday’s game. It’s a great opportunity to be in postseason play. It’s the first time for everybody on the team to be continuing to play after the America East conference tournament. It’s nice. We’re excited. We’ll be ready for Thursday’s game.
‘We’re all competitors. No one’s going into this game thinking that it’s not important just because we lost the championship. It’s hard to keep things in perspective, but we still had an undefeated season, we’re still the best team in BU history and we still want to go far in the NIT.’
The winner of Thursday’s game will travel to the other end of Commonwealth Avenue to face Boston College on Monday at 7 p.m.
Cihal helped Vermont slow Burks-Wiley
In Sunday’s America East title game, BU’s first six points came on layups by Jesyka Burks-Wiley. The senior forward’s first bucket came on a lob pass by senior guard Kristi Dini over the head of Catamount guard Courtnay Pilypaitis. Burks-Wiley was easily able to get behind Pilypaitis, leaving nothing but open space between her and the hoop when she caught the pass.
Burks-Wiley’s next two points came on the exact same play, but this time the lob was made by senior guard Amarachi Umez-Eronini. On her third basket, Burks-Wiley caught a pass in the low post and spun right around Pilypaitis for a third-straight easy layup.
The Catamounts like to start four guards, and it usually doesn’t hurt them inside because Pilypaitis, who stands at 6-foot-1, is strong enough and tall enough to match up against most fours in the conference. But Burks-Wiley isn’t most fours. She’s the conference’s leading scorer and rebounder and the 2009 Player of the Year.
Vermont coach Sharon Dawley decided to take action before it was too late, bringing in 6-foot-4 senior forward Andrea Cihal, the team’s most intimidating post defender. The move worked to near-perfection, and points became much tougher to come by for Burks-Wiley with Cihal in the game.
‘Burks-Wiley, just a remarkable player, started off the game the way she did, so we had to make some changes,’ Dawley said after the game. ‘BU’s such a quality club that you can’t help down on her because they’ll kill you from 3. Coach Greenberg’s just done a phenomenal job taking the talent she has and putting them in the perfect spots so you really can’t help off anybody.
‘The key, I thought, was Andrea Cihal coming in and being able to stay behind her and being able to contest the shot. If she shoots over you and makes it, fine, but we just can’t give up any easy lobs. I thought Andrea was a huge, huge force on the defensive end for us tonight.’
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