The Boston University women’s basketball team dropped its regular-season closer to the College of the Holy Cross 48-59 Wednesday night in Worcester.
The Terriers (16-13, 12-6 Patriot League) scored the lowest amount of points since league competition began in January, and one of their lowest point totals this season.
“We struggled to score a little bit. We didn’t share the ball as well as we did in our previous matchup,” assistant coach Kourtni Williams said postgame.
Freshman guard Alex Giannaros led the pack with 15 points. Giannaros opened up the scoring in the matchup and carried the Terriers to a 5-0 start with a layup and a three-pointer, but she wasn’t able to keep control of the ball throughout the game, giving up five turnovers.
Besides Giannaros, junior guard Sydney Johnson had 13 points, and junior forward Maren Durant scored 10.
The Crusaders (20-9, 14-4 PL) were led by senior guard Avery LaBarbera, who scored 24 points.
LaBarbera proved the engine of Holy Cross’s offense early on with 13 points in the first half, but the Crusaders looked to find more depth scoring across their lineup in order to take down the Terriers.
Holy Cross was able to do just that in the second half. LaBarbera brought the defense with her wherever she went. Whether in the paint or beyond the arc, LaBarbera’s ability to score on all three levels spaced the floor and opened up uncontested three-point attempts for her teammates.
Sophomore guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy was the largest benefactor of LaBarbera’s strong performance against BU — the Dublin, Ireland native shot 3-for-3 from distance.
Holy Cross had a total of 12 assists in the game compared to BU’s two.
The Crusader defense collected a total 23 defensive rebounds and held the Terriers to 34.5% shooting from the field.
“Hats off to Holy Cross, they did an amazing job defensively,” Williams said.
Surrounding the court was a loud crowd that raised the energy of the high-stakes game even further. The game determined the number one seed of the Patriot League tournament, and the Holy Cross win gave them the regular-season championship.
“This is the first time that we’ve played in an environment I would say this intense,” Williams said. “It was a tough environment to play [in] and very rowdy and hard to hear.”
The Terriers, despite starting the game up five points, were always at least two scores behind Holy Cross once they gave up the early lead.
“It’s tough that we really struggled to kind of get into a rhythm and a flow,” Williams said.
While the Terriers lost this game, the team’s 12 wins in the Patriot League matches its most in a single season since they joined the league in 2013.
With the Terriers’ loss and American University’s win over Lafayette, BU fell to the third seed in the Patriot League tournament.
The Terriers will welcome the United States Military Academy to the Case Gym on March 7 at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League tournament.
Williams emphasized a need for the team to look forward as they prepare for its playoff matchup.
“Just focusing on us,” she said. “Just preparing, bouncing back and being confident in who we are and what we do and what got us here.”
