When a team plays about 30 games in a span of almost three months, unsung heroes will certainly find a way to get their names in the game. In the Boston University women’s basketball team’s 66-62 win over the University of New Hampshire, some less-heralded players did just that.
From the box score, the numbers are not immediately impressive.
Senior guard Kat Briggs: five points, two rebounds and two steals in 16 minutes.
Freshman forward Rashidat Agboola: three points in 13 minutes.
Sophomore forward Jacquelin Kuczynski: three points and two rebounds in seven minutes.
What if one of Briggs’ steals took not only possession of the ball, but also UNH’s chance to make a last-second, game-winning basket? What if all three of Kuczynski’s points came at a moment when BU was down by three and struggling to gain momentum late in the game?
That was exactly the case Saturday afternoon at Case Gymnasium as the Terriers collected their ninth straight win and continued their undefeated conference run.
“We have a lot of depth,” said junior guard Alex Young. “Being able to rely on our bench is huge for us. We have a lot of talented players, and the fact that we can go to them at times like today is big.”
The first big moment from the BU bench was indeed Kuczynski’s three-pointer. After overcoming a 13-point deficit, UNH held a 55-52 lead’and all of the momentum’with 5:55 to play. The Wildcats were on a 20-5, seven minute run when Kuczynski drained a 3-pointer to tie the game.
“It was great that Jac came in and was ready to play,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “She doesn’t get that many minutes, but she was certainly ready to play.”
The fact that Kuczynski does not get a lot of minutes is no understatement: Kuczynski had not played more than five minutes in a game since Jan. 9, when the Terriers recorded a 56-43 win over University of Vermont, and had not scored a point since the team’s 78-40 win over University of Maine on Jan. 2. However, Greenberg said the decision to put Kuczynski in was an easy one.
“[UNH was] playing zone, and Jac can really shoot it, so it was a pretty easy decision,” Greenberg said. “They were really trapping a lot, and going in against the zone wasn’t really helping us, so we went with Jac. She’s really our best 3-point shooter.”
Minutes after Kuczynski’s key 3-pointer, Briggs made what was arguably the play of the game.
With the Terriers holding a slim 64-62 lead in the last minute of play, UNH drove the ball down the court looking for the win. With 10 seconds on the clock, Briggs stole the ball from UNH center Jill McDonald and was quickly fouled by guard Cari Reed. Briggs made both of the ensuing three throws to give BU a 66-62 lead and put the game out of reach.
“Oh my gosh, thank you,” said sophomore guard Chantell Alford after the game. “It was big. The free throws were big and the steal at the end was big, and I think that’s the reason why we won.”
Greenberg called Briggs a ‘defensive specialist’ after the team’s 65-60 win against Binghamton University on Jan. 26, and that certainly proved to be true in this game.
“Then there was Kat, coming in for a lot of minutes, and just played solid defense, coming up with that big steal at the end of the game,” Greenberg said on Saturday.
As conference play continues, it will likely be these bench players who will play crucial minutes in supporting roles as the first-place Terriers make their march into the postseason.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
