If there were any concerns about a possible letdown after Tuesday night’s riveting 80-75 overtime win in West Hartford, the Boston University women’s basketball team put them to rest early in yesterday’s 71-57 triumph over the University of Maine. The Terriers jumped out to a 13-3 lead and never let the Black Bears pull within eight during the final 33:42.
Senior guard Kristi Dini carried BU in the opening stanza, knocking down 4-of-6 from beyond the arc en route to 14 first-half points. Senior forward Jesyka Burks-Wiley, who did away with her protective facemask at halftime, took over in the second, pouring in 10 points and pulling down five boards in the frame. Each of them finished with 17 points to lead the Terriers to their first regular-season America East title since 1988.
‘I know, especially for the senior class, it’s our first time,’ Burks-Wiley said of winning the regular-season crown. ‘Really, just to see your hard work, one piece at a time, come together, really feels good. It’s just something that I know we’ll carry with us for the rest our lives. It’s a moment we’ll never forget.’
The key to BU’s fast start was its voracious full-court defense. The Terrier defense forced 13 turnovers in the first half, including eight in the first eight minutes. Just under five minutes in, Dini picked off a pass at half court and took it down for a pull-up jumper from the left elbow to make it 10-2 BU.
Six minutes later, Burks-Wiley intercepted a pass at the top of the defensive zone and went the length of the court for an easy 2 to up the lead to 19-9.
‘From the get-go, we decided we were gonna pressure the ball,’ senior guard Amarachi Umez-Eronini said. ‘That’s our gameplan every game. I know Hartford, they got off to an early start, maybe because we weren’t as aggressive pressuring the ball early. So, we wanted to make sure when we started this game that we were gonna pressure the guards.
‘Defensively, we wanted to cause a lot of havoc and make it hard to make any passes. That’s what got us going. We were aggressive, and we also pushed the ball offensively.’
Up by 13 with four minutes left in the half, senior guard Christine Kinneary drove into the lane and kicked out to a wide-open Alex Young. The freshman guard sunk the trey for her only bucket of the game. A minute later, Dini collected an offensive rebound after a Kinneary miss, took a couple steps back and hit a wide-open 3 of her own to increase the lead to 34-15.
Dini hit two more trifectas in the final 1:22 of the half to send the Terriers into the locker room with a 40-25 lead.
After shooting just 3-of-9 from the field in the first half, Burks-Wiley discarded her facemask and elected to put her fractured nose right in the line of fire. It paid off for BU as she made 3-of-7 field goals and 4-of-5 free throws. Her second-half breakout was highlighted by a low-post spin move and contested layup finish against junior forward Brittany Boser with 3:53 remaining in the game to give the Terriers a 69-50 lead.
‘I was missing a lot of layups, a lot of bunnies, in the first half that have to be automatic for us,’ Burks-Wiley said. ‘And I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. I’m just gonna risk getting hit again.’ I was just missing way too many easy shots that the team needed, so I got rid of [the facemask].’
‘I got hit a lot [in the second half]. Obviously, I’m an inside player. It hurts. I do notice it some, but I just kept playing through it. I was like, ‘It’s not gonna get better, so there’s no point in whining about it.”
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