The Boston University women’s basketball team returned to The Roof for the first time since its season opener Jan. 4 for a series against the Army West Point Black Knights. The Terriers ended the series with two wins.
The Terriers started their weekend with a three-pointer by senior guard Katie Nelson. In the first quarter, the Terriers dominated, finishing with a 15-point lead. Meanwhile, the Black Knights struggled offensively, shooting less than 10 percent from the field.
Moseley said the team’s pace, execution and flow of the game contributed to such a dominant performance.
“We wanted to play quick, we didn’t want to play fast,” she said in a postgame conference Saturday. “Once the ball goes in, it’s really interesting how it works. When it doesn’t go in, it feels like no one can make a shot. When it does go in, it feels like everybody can make a shot.”
Junior forward Riley Childs led the Terriers in the first quarter with six points. Childs made the All Patriot League Rookie Team in 2019 and averaged over seven points a game in her first two seasons as a Terrier.
Nelson and sophomore guard Sydney Johnson lead the Terriers in points for the season. Nelson has scored over 100 points in all nine Terriers contests.
Sophomore guard Maggie Pina has had a slow start to the season — averaging 9.2 points this season compared to her 11.5 points last season — but she got in her groove and scored 15 points against the Black Knights Saturday.
By the end of the first half, the Terriers led 42-9, but the Black Knights were also able to get a few more points on the board in second.
The scoring plateaued for BU, while Army gained some momentum in the third quarter with 11 points. The Terriers ended the period on a high note, with Pina sinking a buzzer-beater layup.
The Terriers scored over 80 points by the end of the game — their highest score since playing University of Delaware during the 2017-18 season.
Sunday’s game honored the three Terrier seniors: Nelson, forward Mackenzie Miers and guard Tenisha Pressley.
Under the leadership of Nelson, Miers and Pressley, the Terriers have enjoyed their most successful start to a season since their 1978-79 campaign.
Moseley spoke about Miers and Pressley’s influence on the team, specifically this weekend by spending significant time on the court.
“They’ve poured their heart and soul into this program,” Moseley said in a press conference Sunday. “For four years they show up every day, they work hard, they don’t complain … so proud of them really sticking to being a part of something that’s bigger than themselves.”
The first quarter started with Black Knights’ possession and scoring, but the Terriers were quick to put their own points on the board.
The Black Knights provided a tougher contest for the Terriers Sunday compared to Saturday, with Army only trailing by four points at the end of the first quarter as opposed to 15 the day prior.
BU has played all but one of their nine games in a weekend-series format — a schedule which Moseley called a “war.”
“You can win the battle but you don’t win the war,” Moseley said in a press conference Saturday. “I told them, ‘OK, yesterday was one battle, but if we don’t win this battle today, then we don’t win the war.’”
Sophomore forward Maren Durant dominated the scoring for the Terriers in the first quarter, but four other Terriers contributed to the scoring including Johnson, Miers, Nelson and Pina.
After scoring four points for the Terriers in the second quarter, Johnson was replaced with sophomore guard Liz Shean, who has not seen significant minutes this season — she only spent a total of 10 minutes on the court prior to Saturday’s match when she racked up 14 minutes. Sunday was not much of an improvement — her sub-in that quarter lasted a little over a minute.
The end of the second quarter saw a larger scoring advantage — a nine-point lead — for the Terriers over the Black Knights.
The second half started with back and forth scoring between both teams, but the third quarter ended with a 52-42 advantage for the Terriers.
BU Redshirt junior guard Emily Esposito became another scoring player, racking up eight points in the third quarter.
The Terriers called a timeout halfway through the third quarter, as the Black Knights had closed the lead by four points. After the timeout, BU went on to score 10 points to Army’s four.
In the last quarter of the game, scoring slowed for the Terriers, and a series of free throws by the Black Knights brought them within five points of the Terriers.
The Terriers were triumphant in the end, finishing with a 65-53 win.
The Terriers will continue their season Wednesday in a series against College of the Holy Cross. Tip-off between the Terriers and the Crusaders will be at 6 p.m. in Case Gym.
