After rattling off three consecutive wins, the Boston University women’s basketball team looks to attain its first four-game winning streak since the 2012-2013 season.
BU (10-14, 8-5 Patriot League) head coach Katy Steding has the Terriers clicking on all cylinders going into a midweek matchup with Colgate University.
“The girls have really gotten some confidence from our last several games,” Steding said. “They’re figuring out how to win. They’re playing with a real cohesiveness.”
The Terriers have beaten Lafayette College and Loyola University Maryland on the road and American University at home during their recent surge. Over the course of the past three games, BU has outscored their opponents by a 38-point margin overall.
Last time BU played the Raiders (8-16, 5-8 Patriot League) in Hamilton, New York, the Terriers came back from a 14-point deficit in the final quarter of regulation after leading the game early at the end of the first quarter.
The Raiders then outscored the Terriers 10-1 in the second overtime period, sealing a 96-87 home victory. Senior Katie Curtis led all scorers with 29 points, while guards Kateri Stone and Rachel Thompson chipped in 21 points apiece.
“Colgate has played and is playing really, really well. It’s going to be a battle regardless,” Steding said. “Last time against Colgate we played pretty much as poorly on defense as we played all year.”
Stone, a junior, also contributed six assists in 32 minutes off the bench. Thompson, an impressive freshman, snagged 11 rebounds and swiped six steals in the Raiders victory.
“Colgate has a lot of good shooters, they put them in the rights spots, they move the ball extremely well,” Steding said. “They’re aggressive and they’re fearless.”
For the Terriers, junior center Sophie Beaudry and senior guard Sarah Hope scored 20 points a piece, while sophomore guard Naiyah Thompson set her career high of 17 points which she has since matched.
Beaudry, a transfer student from Monmouth University, currently sits atop the Patriot League in blocked shots per game with 1.8. Beaudry also ranks fourth in the conference in scoring at 16 points per game and 11th in rebounding, averaging 6.2 per contest.
“Sophie is playing really, really well. The thing about being a post player is that you play entirely at the whim of other people on your team,“ said Steding. “She has to wait for her great teammates to get her the ball and she has to do a lot of work to get there. Sophie is a very smart player, she’s a great team player. She’ll tell it like it is with her teammates and I think they respect her for that.”
Colgate’s Curtis ranks sixth in the Patriot League, pouring in 14.7 points per game, and the team ranks fifth in the conference hitting 71.5 percent of their free throws.
In contrast, the Terriers are in the basement for free throw percentage, ranking last in the 10-team conference at just 62.5 percent.
“It’s critical down the stretch,” Steding said of free throw shooting. “We’ve got to make sure we have our shooters on the floor who can help us in a multitude of ways, both in hitting free throws when they have the opportunity but also making sure we get the ball to the right people.”
The Terriers cruised at Loyola (9-15, 5-8 Patriot League) on Saturday, never trailing in their 67-55 victory as Hope and Beaudry led BU once again with 19 and 17 points respectively. BU was able to extend its lead to as much as 27 points in the second half, fending off a pesky Greyhound attack.
“I thought we did a tremendous job of finding options that weren’t the scripted outcome that we were shooting for,” Steding said.
“They’re finding stuff just by playing together a lot. They’re gaining confidence to take some risks, stuff that we didn’t necessarily look for at the beginning of the season,” Steding said. “I think we’re on a good trend here but we still have a lot of work to do.”
