You’ll have to forgive the Boston University women’s basketball team for taking a while to find its groove. After all, no BU player had ever done the Division I postseason shuffle before.
However, after a disappointing and discordant first half, the Terriers eventually caught on to the playoff rhythm. On the heels of a 24-3 second-half run, the Terriers were able to knock off Central Connecticut State University, 79-60, in first-round action of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament at Case Gymnasium on Thursday night. With the win, BU clinched its first-ever postseason victory in program history.
‘It was exciting,’ senior co-captain Christine Kinneary said. ‘Just playing for our fans and playing at Case again. It was really exciting, and the first time that any of us had experienced a postseason game. To get the win at Case, and in front of all the fans and to keep the season alive feels great.’
BU struggled for much of the first half, at one point trailing the underdog Blue Devils by as many as eight points. Only a late charge, led by 3s from senior Kristi Dini and junior Aly Hinton, kept the game close heading into the half, and the Terriers entered the break trailing 41-38.
‘I thought offensively and defensively, we weren’t great [in the first half],’ BU coach Kelly Greenberg said. ‘A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, that first half was great,’ because it was so up and down, but in my mind I didn’t think it was very great for BU.’
A number of factors hindered BU’s performance, but the Terriers’ rebounding effort may have been the biggest. BU was out-boarded, 17-13, by an undersized CCSU squad, and only Hinton, who pulled down five first-half boards, grabbed more than one loose ball for the Terriers in the first half.
‘I thought that Aly played very well in the first half,’ Greenberg said. ‘She settled us down and got us into offense, and did have some big rebounds for us. I don’t know the numbers but I did think she was playing a great game for us.’
The team went into the break obviously dejected by its lackluster play, but its coach went in apparently infuriated.
‘Coach got on us a little bit during halftime as far as just matching [the Blue Devils’] energy,’ Kinneary said. ‘Realizing the importance of the game and the opportunity that we’re given and really just seizing the opportunity.’
‘I think we got over [the University of Vermont] at halftime of tonight’s game, in all honesty,’ Greenberg said after the game, referencing Sunday’s heartbreaking 74-66 America East title-game defeat against the Catamounts. Numerous players had spoken out during the week expressing their disappointment, including Dini, who said Wednesday, ‘It’s hard to be happy right now.’
Greenberg’s halftime speech apparently righted BU’s ship, and the Terriers came out looking like a different squad in stanza number two. BU forced four CCSU turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half, setting the stage for a game-changing 24-3 run, highlighted by four 3-point makes from Dini.
‘Every single person to start that second half really, really played BU basketball,’ Greenberg said. ‘We showed a lot of toughness and that’s why the outcome was what it was.’
‘In the first half, we let a lot of people beat us 1-on-1,’ Hinton said. ‘We switched to a zone for the end of the first half, and I feel like that kind of had [CCSU] out of whack a little bit. Then in the second half, everybody, 1-on-1 defensively, everybody was as sharp as we could be.’
With the win, BU advances to the second round of the WNIT, where it will take on cross-town rival Boston College. The Eagles, who earned a first-round WNIT bye with an RPI of 44, had their tournament bubble popped by the NCAA selection committee.
Despite the fact that the Terriers haven’t played BC since the Eagles shellacked BU, 66-49, on Dec. 18, 2005, the chance to take part in another chapter of the classic Green Line Rivalry means a lot to the Terriers.
‘I think it’s great [to be playing BC],’ Kinneary said. ‘I just went up in the stands and some guy that I didn’t know just came up to me and was like, ‘Beat BC. Beat BC.”
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