Postseason puppies

When the Boston University women’s basketball team takes the floor tonight, it will do so as the clear favorite ‘-‘- a role the Terriers have bitterly accepted.

Tonight at 7 p.m., the Terriers will play host to Central Connecticut State University in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament at Case Gymnasium.

Unfortunately for BU (24-7), a loss Sunday in the America East championship game to the University of Vermont ended the team’s undefeated conference championship bid. The loss snapped a 19-game winning streak and slammed shut the door leading to BU’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003.

‘I feel like it’s hard to be happy right now,’ senior Kristi Dini said about playing in the WNIT instead of the NCAA Tournament. ‘It’s hard to be up, but just to play again and to go on to the postseason, it’s really exciting.’

‘Even though you might think by looking at us we might be kind of down, [tonight] at seven o’clock, we’ll be ready.’

In an effort to let the team heal physically and emotionally, BU coach Kelly Greenberg gave the squad Monday off to relax, reflect and recuperate.

‘Monday was a big day for everyone,’ Greenberg said. ‘[The players] spent a lot of time by themselves and just kind of tried to figure out a way to regroup. Tuesday’s practice, we just kind of tried to be business as usual, but it wasn’t a very good practice, to be honest with you. We didn’t really expect it to be. But [Wednesday], I thought people were much lighter and ready to compete a little bit and go hard. We’re back on track, I think, and really looking forward to [tonight’s] game.

‘We look at this as an opportunity because Sunday’s loss isn’t our last game, so we’re very lucky.’

Fortunately for the Terriers, if Sunday’s loss left the team feeling sick to its stomach, Case Gym is probably the best medicine it could receive. BU is 20-1 at The Roof over the past two seasons, with the only loss coming to St. John’s University on Dec. 30, 2008. The Red Storm will play host to Harvard University Friday night in a WNIT matchup.

‘[Case] is where they play their best,’ Greenberg said about her players. ‘That’s where they’re loosest, with high-energy, high-tempo basketball. I’m really, really happy that we get to play here. I couldn’t be happier.’

The extra home game is especially appreciated by BU’s senior class, comprised of Dini and first-team All-America East players Amarachi Umez-Eronini, Christine Kinneary and Jesyka Burks-Wiley. Additionally, Umez-Eronini earned the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award, and Burks-Wiley was named the America East Player of the Year.

‘[Tonight’s] still another opportunity to play together and to play on our home court,’ Dini, a third-team All-America East honoree, said. ‘We didn’t think we’d get another chance to do that. It’s our first time in the postseason as seniors.’

‘I really hope our seniors have a big game like they did senior day against [the University at] Albany [a 95-72 BU win] because this is their floor,’ Greenberg said. ‘I really hope the four of them play well, and I really envision all four of them having a big game.’

On the other end of the court, CCSU (18-13) comes into the WNIT having won just one of its last five games, including a semifinal exit at the hands of St. Francis University in the Northeast Conference Tournament.

‘[The Blue Devils] do push it a little bit, but not as much as some teams that we’ve faced recently,’ Greenberg said. ‘They’re very team-oriented, and they’re definitely a blue-collar team. They kind of gut it out. They hit the boards and get offensive boards. They did very well in a pretty good conference this year, and their coaches have done a very good job changing that program around in a very short time.’

At practice Wednesday, Greenberg warned her team that freshman guard Shontice Simmons was CCSU’s most dynamic player. Simmons, who began the year coming off the bench, started 26 games for the Blue Devils in 2008-09, averaging 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.

Greenberg said that, above all else, Simmons is a dangerous player because of the depth of her skills.

‘She’s a nice player, and she can do a lot of things,’ Greenberg said about the NEC All-Rookie team honoree. ‘That always makes someone dangerous because you can’t just take away one thing because she has something else to fall on. She has great quickness, she can go to her right or her left ,and she can shoot the 3.’

‘[Simmons] is definitely not afraid to shoot it,’ Dini said. ‘We saw her shoot the 3 [on tape], but she’s definitely more comfortable taking it to the basket. She goes right and left. She’s a legit player from what we saw.’

One of the most glaring weaknesses in BU’s game during the America East Tournament was its abysmal free-throw shooting. The Terriers, who shot 70.5 percent from the charity stripe in 2008-09, hit freebies at a disappointing 60-percent clip in three tournament games, including a 24-of-42 performance against Binghamton University in Saturday’s semifinal match.

‘I think we were all pretty surprised because we focus on free throws, and we have great free-throw shooters,’ Dini said. ‘There’s no excuse for that. We have to come out and make our free throws. There’s really no explanation or excuse. It really hurt us a lot.’

Greenberg, when asked, couldn’t pin the poor free-throw performances on any specific flaw, but did point to the Terriers’ apparent stiffness on the court.

‘I really wish I had [a theory for the lackluster free-throw performances],’ Greenberg said. ‘As a coaching staff, after Friday’s game, it was kind of like, ‘Wow, we played tight.’ I really feel like we went into the weekend a little tight.

‘There was a little bit of, ‘OK, this is our time. We ran the table, now we have to win these three games.’ I think we put some pressure on ourselves, and we didn’t play BU basketball in all three games. We didn’t make layups and missed free throws. I really just take that we were tight.’

Greenberg said she expected BU to shake that rigidity tonight, and a Terrier win could hinge on the team’s performance from the line. The squad is especially dependent on success from the stripe because of its aggressive guard play, which has resulted in 100-plus free-throw attempts for three different players (Burks-Wiley, Umez-Eronini and Kinneary).

‘We want to get the ball inside,’ Dini said. ‘We want to take the ball to the basket because those [free throws] are two points for us, always. That was definitely a tough thing to deal with, and there’s no excuse for it.’

Also among the chief concerns for the Terriers is energy, notably a potential lack thereof after playing 125 minutes of basketball over the weekend. Greenberg and Dini both acknowledged that the team’s legs might be a bit weary, but said the training staff did a good job to get the team as prepared as possible health-wise.

‘I think it comes down to, it’s the end of the season, and it’s gut-check time,’ Greenberg said. ‘Your legs shouldn’t mean that much . . . It’s all your adrenaline taking you. We’re lucky enough where if we do win Thursday night, we have some time before our next game as well. I think we’ll be fine.’

The winner of tonight’s game will play Boston College at Chestnut Hill Monday at 7 p.m.