Women’s basketball to play SBU

While everyone else at Boston University shifts gears and hits the books, the BU women’s basketball team hits the court tonight on the road against Stony Brook University in an attempt to maintain its perfect record in the America East.‘

Tonight’s contest against the Seawolves (3-12, 1-2) will be the third straight road game for the Terriers (6-8, 2-0) to start off conference play. In last week’s contests, BU bested the University of Maine and Binghamton University, 71-65 and 68-57, respectively.

‘To start off 2-0, we’re real happy,’ BU coach Kelly Greenberg said after Thursday’s Binghamton win. ‘A lot of people think we’re young, and people look at our record. But we think we’re a pretty darn good team. Hopefully, our girls are going to be excited about these two wins.’

Freshman guard Chantell Alford has made the most of her introduction to America East conference play. The West Haven, Conn. native scored a career-high 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting in her conference debut against the Black Bears and earned America East Rookie of the Week honors for the second straight week, her third award of the season.

Senior forward Aly Hinton has been a force off the bench for the Terriers. In the two conference games, the senior captain has averaged 16 points and 7 rebounds. Perhaps more impressive has been her three-point shooting-the 6-foot-1 forward went a combined 7-for-9 from beyond the arc in the contests.

As well as the break ended for Hinton and the rest of the BU squad, it had an even better start, as the team achieved its biggest victory of the season in defeating Southeastern Conference foe University of South Carolina, 68-67, in the opening round of the St. Joseph’s Hawk Classic.

Freshman guard Mo Moran scored the two most important points of her 21-point night when she hit two free throws with eight seconds left to make it a three-point contest. A Gamecock layup with one tick left on the clock would have given South Carolina the lead had Moran not made the free throws. Instead, the bucket was too-little, too-late as the Terriers escaped with the one-point win.

‘To beat a big-time conference team and a team’s that tough like South Carolina, it was a heck of a win,’ Greenberg said. ‘It was a great, great W. Mo came up with those two huge free throws to clinch it for us.’

However, the winter break schedule wasn’t without a little coal in the stocking.

In the final game of the Hawk Classic, BU fell to host St. Joe’s, 71-58, despite double-digit performances from Moran (20), Alford (14) and sophomore guard Alex Young (14).

Things did not get any easier in BU’s next game against Comm. Ave. rival Boston College, the first meeting between the schools since BC downed BU in the second round of the WNIT last year. Like last year’s season-ending game, BU actually held a lead in the second half before the Eagles took over at home and handed the Terriers a 68-53 loss.

But on paper, it appears that the Stony Brook squad they will face tonight is similar to Maine and Binghamton, not St. Joe’s and BC.

The Seawolves’ 3-12 overall record is currently the worst in all of America East, ranking just below Binghamton at 5-10 and Maine at 4-11. The team is eighth in both scoring offense and scoring defense with only junior forward Kirsten Jeter (13.3) posting a double-digit points per game average. BU boasts a trio of Young (14.6), Alford (14.2) and Moran (13.2) in double figures

If the Terriers defeat Stony Brook this evening, it will be the 100th victory at Boston University for Greenberg, making her only the second coach in program history to have hit the milestone.

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