The book on last season has closed and put on the shelf under the history section. The seniors, all four of whom were starters, have graduated and moved on. This is truly a new year.
With the drop of the ball in Friday’s matinee at the Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky. at 11 a.m., the Boston University women’s basketball team will officially move on from last year’s record-breaking season ‘-‘- and the disappointing way in which it ended.
Although the bulk of the starting lineup is no longer on the roster, there are still some experienced players that will take the court against the University of Kentucky Friday morning.
Senior forward Aly Hinton is the Terriers’ only returning starter and averaged eight points and 4.9 rebounds per game last season. Junior Kerry Cashman and sophomore Caroline Stewart will join Hinton in crashing the net and grabbing rebounds in the frontcourt after logging quality minutes a year ago.
At the guard positions, junior Kat Briggs and sophomore Alex Young will attempt to build off their experiences from a year ago. Young can be expected to be the Terriers’ go-to-target from the 3-point line as she hit 38.5 percent of her shots from deep in her freshman campaign. Meanwhile, Briggs will bring intensity on the defensive end as well as handle the point guard spot, although BU coach Kelly Greenberg has acknowledged that the Terriers will utilize three guards ‘-‘- Young, Briggs and freshman Chantell Alford ‘-‘- at the ball handler position.
‘This year, we’re going with the three-headed point guard,’ Greenberg said. ‘Just from an attacking standpoint, they all have the ability to do so. On the end side of that, we have the other two guards who can catch and look to score and shoot the three.’
However, the most pressing storyline for the Terriers this weekend will come from senior forward Maggie McKemie, who returns to her home state of Kentucky for the first time in her BU career. Greenberg acknowledged that one of the main reasons the Wildcats were put on the schedule was to allow McKemie, a Louisville, Ky. native, a shot to play in the Bluegrass State.
‘[We scheduled Kentucky] because of Maggie,’ Greenberg said. ‘She’s from Kentucky, and we really wanted to make sure we got to her home state before she graduated.’
The Terriers’ Southeastern Conference opponent will most likely be the toughest opponent they face all season. Last season, the Wildcats boasted a 16-16 record overall and a 5-9 record in the tough SEC before they, like BU, bowed out in the second round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
If the Terriers are to have any success at The House that Rupp Built, they will assuredly have to key on junior forward Victoria Dunlap, who was recently named to the preseason All-SEC team after leading the Wildcats in points, field-goal percentage, rebounds, steals and blocks last year.
It will seemingly get easier, although not by much, for the Terriers as they move back north for a Sunday contest against Atlantic-10 opponent, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
BU narrowly escaped the Mullins Center with an 82-75 victory the last time these two teams crossed paths on Jan. 2. Unfortunately for the Terriers, Hinton is the only returnee to have hit double digits in points with 10 in that contest as the rest of the returning squad who played (Cashman, McKemie, Young and Stewart) combined for only 10.
The Minutewomen, in a similar fashion, find themselves without the services of three of their four top scorers from that Bay State battle. From that group, only senior guard Diatiema Hill, who scored 15 against the Terriers last season, finds herself again on the UMass roster this year.
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