On Saturday afternoon, Boston University women’s basketball lost its third straight Patriot League game to the United States Naval Academy, 64-59, at Case Gym. The Terriers (8-10, 3-5 Patriot League) cut Navy’s (16-3, 6-2 Patriot League) lead to two points with 20 seconds remaining in the matchup, but they could not tie the score.
After a 16-point loss to American University on Wednesday night, BU head coach Katy Steding said she wanted to see more from her team.
“I challenged them to step up and play harder,” Steding said. “And they did. I thought overall we were a really different team tonight.”
The Midshipmen started the game on fire shooting-wise, hitting three early three-pointers. Two came from senior guard Taylor Dunham, the leading-scorer for Navy who is averaging 15.5 points per game.
BU shot just 3-for-13 (23.1 percent) from the field in the first quarter and found itself trailing 15-8 after the first 10 minutes.
During the first 20 minutes of the game, eight of the 10 Midshipmen that saw the court registered at least two points.
Senior guard Corrine Williams was the most effective Terrier offensively in the first half, scoring 11 of the 21 first half points for BU. Williams recorded one of BU’s two first half three-pointers on top of five rebounds.
Steding has been extremely impressed with the way Williams has played recently.
“She is a stud,” Steding said. “When she wants to compete, there is nobody fiercer in the room. She has gained a lot of confidence in the last week or so.”
No other BU player, besides Williams, had more than three points in the first half. The Terriers’ second-leading scorer freshman guard Katie Nelson had a difficult first half as she turned the ball over six times.
Navy struggled from being the arc, hoisting up 13 three-point field goals and connecting on only four, but the Midshipmen led 27-21 at the halfway point of the game.
Navy opened up its largest lead of the game early in the third quarter as it began the quarter on a 6-0 run.
Williams tried to spark the BU offense by connecting on a three in response. Nelson added a three of her own to cut the deficit back to six.
Sophomore forward Nia Irving collected an offensive rebound for BU off a Nelson miss and Irving layed it in to cut the deficit to three with 1:06 to go in the third quarter.
Three quick three pointers early in the fourth quarter, one from junior guard Molly Sanders and two senior guard Hannah Fenske opened up the Navy lead to 10.
Williams almost single-handedly got the Terriers back into the game with two three-point plays, one the old-fashioned way and one from long distance. These brought her game total up to 20 and BU within two at 49-47 with 6:07 to go in the matchup.
Williams finished the game with a season-high 22 points and has also scored in double figures in four of her last five games.
The Midshipmen took a 57-51 with 53.4 seconds to play after Dunham connected on back-to-back free throws.
After an Irving layup, Terrier sophomore guard Vanessa Edgehill stole the ball from Fenske and Irving scored again to back it 59-57 Navy with 19.7 seconds to play.
BU had a chance to tie the game down with 6.8 seconds to go, but Edgehill could not handle the pass, and Navy iced the game away with a layup from Fenske to win 64-59.
Steding said she was happy to see a more polished and enthusiastic effort from the ladies in the tough defeat.
“To go toe-to-toe with Navy like that, if a couple shots fall a different way, it’s a totally different ball game,” Steding said. “I told the girls afterwards I was really proud of them and I felt this was a big step for us.”
