Basketball, Sports

Women’s basketball falls at Marist despite Beaudry’s career night

Senior guard Sarah Hope leads the team in points with 11 per game. PHOTO BY JOHN KAVOURIS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Senior guard Sarah Hope leads the team in points with 11 per game. PHOTO BY JOHN KAVOURIS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Despite a career night from junior center Sophie Beaudry, the Boston University women’s basketball team’s inconsistencies continued in its 76-57 road loss at Marist College on Saturday night.

The Terriers (1-9), who in previous games were prone to early leads and late dry spells, had the opposite happen to them against the Red Foxes (3-7).

By the end of the first quarter, BU was down 19-7 to the home side, though it previously had first-quarter leads in three of its last four contests.

Terrier head coach Katy Steding attributed her team’s unusual first-half struggles to defensive lapses that kept them from playing unified basketball.

“Defensively, we weren’t fully in-sync,” Steding said. “We tried a couple of different things to try and get out on [the Red Foxes’] 3-point shooters. They have a very quick trigger over there, and they play really hard. They play at a great tempo for their offense and we didn’t get out on the shooters fast enough. That’s pretty plain and simple.”

Ultimately, the Terriers’ defensive struggles from behind the arc and the free-throw line proved to be their undoing.

Outside of senior guard Sarah Hope’s six 3-pointers, BU failed to hit a single shot from deep, and finished shooting 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from outside.

Marist, on the other hand, caught fire throughout from 3-point territory.

Four Red Foxes had at least two 3-pointers on the evening, with sisters Rebekah and Hannah Hand and forward Lovísa Björt Henningsdóttir accounting for nine of their team’s 14-made efforts from long range.

“With the 3-point shot, you’re able to build a lead pretty quickly and then we’re kind of fighting and clawing the whole rest of the way.” Steding said. “I think we made some good runs at them but as I’ve often said, we can’t dig a hole like that and battle back. I think we’re much better when we get off to a great start and limit touches right away and force our game inside.”

BU also saw its offensive woes travel inside to the free-throw line.

The Terriers finished by out-fouling Marist 22-19, thus giving the latter more opportunities from the charity stripe.

The Terriers went just 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) from the free-throw line, while the Red Foxes made the most of their opportunities from the line, shooting at an 87 percent clip.

One of the lone positives to come out of BU’s current five-game losing streak has been the emergence of Beaudry as an all-court threat.

On Saturday, the Chambly, Quebec native had already set a new career-high for points by halftime when she had 14.

She finished as the game’s leading scorer with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field.

Throughout BU’s losing streak, she has posted double-digit scoring totals all but once, and is averaging 12.8 points and 5.6 rebounds.

“Sophie’s such an asset for us,” Steding said. “It’s not just what she does scoring wise. She’s gotten better and better every time she steps on the floor. I think for her part she did a great job scoring [against Marist]. We could’ve used more rebounding from her but I think they did a good job surrounding her and boxing her out.”

With winter break rapidly approaching, the Terriers’ last contest before Christmas will be at home against the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Wednesday night at Case Gym.

“One of the big things we know about UMass [(5-5)] is they play their starting five like almost the entire game so they’ve legs in those starting five but we’ve got to go inside, get the ball into scorers inside and then possibly back out,” Steding added. “We’ve got to take advantage of our depth and go at them for 40 minutes.”

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