In its season opener against the University of Kentucky, four minutes and 27 seconds was all it took for the Boston University women’s basketball team to allow nine points.
Last night, it took an entire half.
In what could be considered their best defensive effort this season, the Terriers defeated the University of Rhode Island, 47-35, in their home opener at Case Gymnasium.
In the first half, the BU (1-2) defense held URI (0-2) to a paltry nine points, thanks to 19 forced turnovers.
‘Since [Sunday’s 78-73 overtime loss to UMass], the last couple of days we’ve tried to pick up on our ball pressure,’ BU senior guard Kat Briggs said. ‘Ball pressure’s going to put pressure on the guards so that they are not getting open looks and they are not getting comfortable. I think that helped us in the first half.
‘If we keep pushing the ball handlers, it is going to cause more difficulties for them to get it inside as well so I think it really helps everywhere.’
Indeed, when URI forwards attempted to get the ball down low, they found a BU defender right in their face. As a result, they held the ball for extended periods of time, resulting in lane violations for the Rams’ post players.
At one point, URI sophomore forward Lara Gasper, who finished the game with 11 points and 12 rebounds, showed her frustration by letting out a primal yell after getting called for a three-second violation upon failing to receive a pass into the post.’
As a result of its intense pressure on the defensive end, a large amount of pressure was in turn taken away from the BU offense, which has not been at its best early in the season.
‘I think our offense has been struggling, but I think our defense is what is helping us get fired up offensively,’ Briggs said. ‘Holding them to nine points for so long takes a lot of pressure off the offense. That allows us to just focus on running an offense instead of needing to make the shot.’
By allowing only 35 points on the night as a whole, BU held its opponents to below 40 points for the first time since Feb. 27, 2008, when the Terriers defeated the University of New Hampshire, 66-39. With five minutes left to play and only 21 points on the board for URI, there were rumblings that the Terriers could eclipse the record for the lowest points scored by an opponent.
That record was set in an 81-26 win over the College of the Holy Cross on Dec. 2, 1977.
Though they couldn’t break that record, the Terriers were able to keep URI’s scoring to a minimum thanks to increased ball pressure.
Although 47 total points cannot make the Terriers feel all too comfortable on the offensive end, there were certainly some positives. Briggs had eight points, six of which came from behind the 3-point arc, tying freshman guard Caitlynn Moran and sophomore forward Caroline Stewart for the team-high in points.
Moran, in particular, continues to look comfortable as the leader at the point of the offense in her first season at BU. She leads the team with 12.6 points per game.
However, rebounding and injuries continued to be a problem for the Terriers.
After scoring seven of BU’s first 13 points, freshman guard Chantell Alford went down with a nose injury after a fight for a rebound with 5:50 left in the first half. She did not return in the second half and joined crutch-bearing freshman guard Kristen Sims at the infirmary end of the BU bench.
The Terriers, who continue to struggle on the boards, were outrebounded 53-30 by the Rams. But junior guard and tri-captain Krystyn McIntyre thinks small fixes can be made to alleviate that problem.
‘We have to make sure we’re not running at the rim,’ McIntyre said. ‘If we just stick to our girl and box her out, that’d eliminate a lot of the rebounds they had tonight.’
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