Homecoming

The Boston University women’s basketball team jumped out to a 17-4 lead last night and never looked back, dominating wire-to-wire en route to an 84-61 win over Siena College in its home opener at Case Gymnasium.

With the victory, the Terriers extended their win streak at The Roof to 14 games.

Senior forward Jesyka Burks-Wiley led the way for BU (2-0), recording a game-high 20 points and team-high seven rebounds. Senior guard Amarachi Umez-Eronini added 18 points, five rebounds and three steals, while classmate Kristi Dini chipped in 14 points and four steals.

Five Terriers recorded at least five rebounds, as they won the battle on the boards by a 44-30 margin.

‘We went into the game with the mindset of rebounding,’ Burks-Wiley said. ‘Obviously, they were bigger than us. They may have had size on us, but we were a lot more fundamental ‘- making sure every shot [got] up, we hit a body and just went after it. We really put it in our heads at practice to just go after it.’

BU came out firing on all cylinders defensively, forcing 10 turnovers in the game’s first 8:30. They were able to convert those turnovers into 13 early points. Dini recorded three steals in the game’s first five minutes, while Umez-Eronini netted eight of the Terriers’ first 17 points.

Siena’s (0-3) numerous turnovers, combined with BU’s opportunistic fast break, created a number of open shots for the Terrier offense.

‘I think some of the shots we got early, whether we made them or not, were great-looking shots,’ BU coach Kelly Greenberg said. ‘We were very pleased in the first half with our offensive gameplan.’

Freshman guard Alex Young (6 points) hit a 3 with 7:34 left in the half to extend the lead to 15. Forty seconds later, senior point guard Christine Kinneary (8 points, 8 assists) collected a rebound and tossed an outlet pass to Umez-Eronini for an easy layup finish at the other end.

The Saints couldn’t get closer than 14 for the remainder of the half and Dini’s trey with one second left gave the Terriers a 41-24 halftime lead.

The one obstacle the Terriers struggled with in the first half was breaking down the Saints’ full court press.

‘I didn’t do as good a job [breaking down the full court press] as I would’ve liked to, but the other guards did a good job stepping up,’ Kinneary said. ‘If I was getting trapped, I had Dini or Amarachi to help out. We wanted to be the aggressors and we didn’t want to let Siena get us back on our toes because that’s our gameplan to do to them.’

Early in the second half, Siena cut the lead to nine with a 10-2 run capped off with a jumper from senior forward Heather Stec, who led the Saints with 18 points and a game-high eight rebounds.

BU immediately dashed any dream the Saints had of a comeback, scoring 21 of the game’s next 26 points to put the game out of reach.

Freshman forward Caroline Stewart, sophomore guard Kat Briggs and junior forward Aly Hinton all made key contributions off the bench in the game. Stewart brought down five boards in 15 minutes, Briggs notched four points in 10 and Hinton scored eight in 19.

Hinton looked confident in her second game following two knee surgeries. She battled for loose balls and rebounds and didn’t shy from contact.

‘It’s always nice to get Aly in the game,’ Greenberg said. ‘She missed her first two bunnies, but Aly’s our stabilizing force. The other team could do anything and nothing’s going to rile her. She’s just nice and calm and easy. She has a great feel for the game.’