The red-hot Boston University women’s basketball team will look to continue its winning ways when it takes to the court for the first time in a week tonight at the University at Albany at 7 p.m.’
The Terriers (13-6, 7-0 America East) have won eight straight games, but haven’t played since they handed out an 84-57 thrashing to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County last Wednesday.
‘I think we needed the rest,’ BU coach Kelly Greenberg said about her team’s long layoff. ‘I thought it was a little too long. It seems like every team in our conference who has had a layoff has come back and lost, so I’m going to use that, of course, as a ‘let’s not be one of those teams.”
A few Terriers have been playing through various injuries, although Greenberg said that BU’s bumps and bruises were nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. In particular, Greenberg specified that junior Aly Hinton, whose playing time earlier this year was limited by two offseason knee surgeries, and senior co-captain Jesyka Burks-Wiley were banged up enough that they sat out a pair of practices late last week.
‘[Burks-Wiley and Hinton] actually took off Thursday and Friday’s practices as well as the weekend, so they’ve really been off,’ Greenberg said. ‘But some of our older players can take it easy, so I think it was good for us overall.’
In their last game against UMBC, the Terriers were led by seniors Burks-Wiley (21 points, six rebounds), Amarachi Umez-Eronini (17 points, nine boards) and co-captain Christine Kinneary (13 points, eight assists). UMBC junior guard Carlee Cassidy finished with 33 points, but was the Retrievers’ only noteworthy offensive threat.
The Terriers rank second in the conference in scoring (71.2 points per game) and scoring margin (plus-5.4 ppg). Burks-Wiley ranks second in individual scoring (18.6 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (7.2 rpg).’
Kinneary, who is second in the conference in assists (4.9 assists per game), needs just five handouts to break the BU record for assists in a career. Debbie Miller (’81) currently holds the record with 477.
Senior Kristi Dini is also looking to rewrite the record books. She needs 15 3-pointers to set the single-season record, and she needs 16 deep balls to claim the all-time program record, which is held by Katie Terhune (’04), who had 172.
The Great Danes (3-17, 1-6) are coming off a 73-47 whooping at the hands of the University of Hartford and have lost five straight.
‘They’re a very scary team for us as a coaching staff,’ Greenberg said. ‘They do have a lot of returning guards. Some of them aren’t playing as much as they did last year, but they have four guards that scare us a little bit.’
Albany is second-to-last in the conference in scoring (55.3 ppg), but ranks third in scoring defense (62.9 ppg).
‘They can push it, they’re athletic and they’re scrappy on the defensive side,’ Greenberg said. ‘They’re very inexperienced at their forward spot. They lost two all-conference forwards to graduation, so I think that’s why they’re a little green right now, but they’re scary because they do have the guards.
‘Our gameplan is to go at them, just like we have in every game in conference play, and really play everyone, and just play a lot of [man-to-man defense] like we have been.”
Greenberg said she calls games like this ‘internet games’ because she worries that when her team sees Albany’s record online, they will take the Great Danes lightly.
‘When you see a team only has one conference win, you just hope that your players understand [not to take the team lightly],’ Greenberg said. ‘I thank God that [Kinneary], [Burks-Wiley], [Umez-Eronini] and Dini are seniors. They’re experienced. They know when you go on the road, anyone can win.’
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