The eighth-seeded Boston University women’s basketball team bowed out in the second round of the Patriot League Tournament to top-seeded Lehigh University in a 62-44 loss Monday night.
“It’s always tough to play on the road, especially in these games,” said BU head coach Melissa Graves.
Lehigh (25-6, 15-3 Patriot League) started strong, scoring five before the Terriers (12-19, 5-13 PL) got on the board during freshman forward Allison Schwertner’s shift at the free-throw line.
Schwertner would be the only Terrier to reach double-digit points, going 4-6 from the field with seven rebounds as the Mountain Hawks largely stifled the rest of BU’s offense.
“She’s just a fearless kid,” head coach Melissa Graves said about Schwertner. “They were pressuring up on her. When we said to attack the pressure… she took it to heart.”
Early in the second quarter, sophomore guard Inés Monteagudo Pardo hit a 3-pointer to narrow the gap to four points, but that would be as close as the Terriers would get for the rest of the game.
After two quarters of play, Lehigh established an 11-point lead.
Senior guard Alex Giannaros set the next frame off for the Terriers, but Lehigh came back with a 10-0 run through the next four minutes to stretch ahead by 19 points.
Giannaros, who made seven threes in the win against the Mountain Hawks last time out, hit her first and only 3-pointer of the game midway through the third quarter.
BU’s defense stayed strong to end the game, holding Lehigh to just eight points in the fourth quarter, but the Terriers could only score six of their own.
“I thought we did a good job defensively. We held them to [one of] the lowest [scores] they’ve had at home, but we just didn’t score enough,” Graves said. “We didn’t take care of the ball enough and have enough possessions.”
Giannaros, BU’s top scorer this season, fouled out with just over five minutes remaining as her last game with the team ran toward the final buzzer.
“She’s the first [player] I’ve had to go through four years here,” Graves said. “You see the growth of someone from a freshman to a senior, and obviously the accolades and the wins that she’s gotten us, but [I’m] even more proud of her growth as a leader.”
In the final minutes of the game, the end of the Terriers’ season became clear as the Mountain Hawks secured an 18-point lead and a home game for the upcoming semifinal.
