The Boston University women’s basketball team (1-1) took down the New Hampshire Wildcats (1-2) 78-64 on Tuesday at Lundhold Gym in Durham, New Hampshire. It was the Terriers’ first win at the University of New Hampshire since 2013.
In the team’s first road action of the season the Terriers used a strong defensive performance in the second half to secure their first victory of 2019. BU won its first game of last season in their second contest as well and it also came on Nov. 12 against Brown University.
New Hampshire jumped out to a 26-20 after one quarter of play thanks to 12-16 shooting in the opening frame. BU would go on to win every quarter after that.
Sophomore Riley Childs led the way for BU scoring a career-high 21 points on 9-12 shooting, including two makes from behind the arc. Senior Nia Irving added 14 points. Irving and Childs went a combined 9-10 from the floor in the first half.
The game was tied at 42 going into halftime after the Wildcats shot 66.7 percent from the field during the first 20 minutes. Many of those points came from redshirt senior Ashley Storey who scored a career-high 24 points in the losing effort.
The Wildcats shot just 34.4 percent in the second half because of cold shooting and BU defense. UNH was only able to manage 22 points in the second half.
The two teams battled in the beginning stages of the third quarter with neither side being able to pull ahead until Maren Durant got involved for BU. She scored or assisted on eight straight points to give the Terriers a 56-51 lead.
The momentum for BU didn’t stop there. They closed the third quarter on a 14-0 run to take a 63-53 lead going into the final frame.
It was a slow start to the fourth quarter but BU found its rhythm when Childs scored six straight points to give the Terriers a 71-55 lead with 4:14 to play.
It was just icing on the cake from that point on as the Terriers closed out the game with strong defense to preserve their first victor of 2019.
Freshman Sydney Johnson saw 33 minutes of action for BU, scoring 12 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Junior Katie Nelson scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and was the only Terrier to play all 40 minutes.
Eight different Terriers scored at least three points, including freshman Maggie Pina who made her one field goal attempt of the night, a three-pointer.
The Terriers dominated the glass, out rebounding the Wildcats 40-23 and finished with a 14-5 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Nelson was a big contributor for the team in assists as well. She led the way with six.
BU will be back in action Sunday when they take on the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. The Black Bears have won the America East the past two seasons. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
The Terriers will not have a home game until Nov. 26 when they take on Harvard University. The team will then embark on a two-game west coast trip when they play at the University of California, Davis and at the University of California, Berkeley.
