The Boston University women’s basketball team started its five-game road trip with an unblemished 2-0 record before suffering back-to-back losses to the University of Iowa and the University of Portland this weekend in the Hawkeye Challenge, 83-58 and 74-62, respectively.
Saturday, the Terriers (2-2) drew a tough matchup against the defending Big Ten regular-season champion Hawkeyes (5-1).
BU had three seniors score in double digits ‘-‘- Jesyka Burks-Wiley, Kristi Dini and Christine Kinneary. Burks-Wiley led the way with 19 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks in 36 minutes.
Kinneary racked up 13 points, four assists and two steals. The point guard played her usual full 40 minutes. Nine of Dini’s 10 points came via the 3-ball and she also had a steal and two assists.
The Hawkeyes came out strong and held the lead for the majority of the first half. The Terriers cut the lead to 12 late in the first half, but the Hawkeyes answered with a 10-0 run to close out the half and take a 22-point lead into the locker room.
The Terriers started the second half on an 18-6 run that included a four-point play from Dini. BU got within 11 points halfway through the second half, but Iowa put its foot on the gas and closed the game out on a 22-8 run to secure a 25-point victory.
The Hawkeyes featured a balanced scoring attack that saw four out of their five starters record double-digit points.
Senior Megan Skouby scored 22 points and was 6-of-8 from the floor. The 6-foot-6 center is the tallest women’s player in school history. She went 10-for-12 from the free throw line.
Last season, after winning the Big Ten Conference in the regular season, the Hawkeyes advanced to the NCAA Tournament. They were the most proficient 3-point shooting team in Big Ten history that year, but only knocked down six 3-pointers against the Terriers.
Sunday, the Terriers faced Portland (2-3) after the Pilots fell to Providence College on Saturday.
Junior Aly Hinton had her highest-scoring game of the season with 13 points off the bench. She was followed by Kinneary and Dini, who finished with 12 points apiece.
Freshman Caroline Stewart had the best game of her young collegiate career, pulling down 10 rebounds in 20 minutes. The former Masconomet Regional High School standout also added five points.
The Terriers started slowly and found themselves down 24-9 with seven minutes remaining in the half. Kinneary got a fastbreak bucket to start an 8-0 run.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, BU trailed by just seven points. Each team scored seven points in the final five minutes, but the Terriers went into the half down 31-24.
The Terriers would not recover from the deficit. They never came closer than seven points in the second half, eventually falling by 12.
Second-half play was even in all facets of the game, with the exception of an unusually low free throw percentage (62).
The Terriers had no answer for junior guard Laiken Dollente. She lit up BU’s defense for 27 points, seven assists and a steal. Dollente was 9-of-14 from the floor and went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Dollente led the Pilots in scoring as a sophomore last season with 14.6 points per game. She ranks first all-time for the Pilots in free throw shooting (89.9 percent) and 3-point shooting (41.6 percent).
The Terriers will look to get back on the winning track today when they travel across the Fens to face Northeastern University (0-3) at Matthews Arena at 5 p.m.
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