The women’s basketball team dropped their final contest of their regular season to Colgate University 77-40, ending their bid for the first seed going into the Patriot League tournament to fall to the third.
The Terriers (18-11, 10-8 PL) never looked like they were on their game. They were missing a lot of shots, shooting under 27% from the field, but more importantly, their defense was lacking.
“When you make shots, it makes it easier,” head coach Melissa Graves said. “Sometimes it happens to us where, when we’re missing shots, it affects every part of the game, and that can’t happen.”
Colgate (17-12, 10-8 PL) outscored BU in every quarter. The only lead the Terriers ever had was a jumper from junior guard Alex Giannaros that began the scoring in the first quarter, just over a minute into the game. Once the Raiders scored 20 seconds later, they never looked back.
Colgate senior forward Tiasia McMillan proved herself yet again to be a problem for the Terriers, setting a career high in points with 21 and making ten of her 13 shots.
“She always finds a way against us,” Graves said. “She hit a lot of jumpers where we didn’t contest enough.”
Senior forward Caitlin Weimar averaged a double-double throughout the season, and she collected another tonight. Despite the slow start to the game, she ended up sinking 20 points, half of the point total for the entire team, with an additional 15 rebounds.
Weimar and Giannaros were lone bright spots for the Terriers’ offense. Giannaros was perfect from the free throw line and ended the night with 12 points, the only other BU player to score double-digit points.
The bulk of the Raiders’ offense came from only a few players as well, who BU had no answer for, on top of McMillan’s 21 points. Junior guard Taylor Golembiewski finished with 14 points.
“Both of them [played hard], and they were hard matchups for us tonight for some reason,” Graves said.
Colgate fifth-year guard Alexa Brodie added on an additional 18 points, coming just two shy of a career total of a thousand.
The Terriers are looking to bounce back as they play their next game against the sixth-seeded Army West Point Black Knights at home in the Patriot League tournament on Monday.
“We have a real opportunity to win a Patriot League championship, so you got to try to switch your focus now, and eyes on the prize,” Graves said.
With the regular season over, the Terriers will try to clean the slate and start fresh as they begin their fight for their first-ever Patriot League Championship title.
“This season has been over now,” Graves said. “It’s a new season, technically talking about March Madness going into the postseason, and it’s a fresh opportunity.”
