With the majority of campus emptied for the holidays the night of Nov. 24, the Boston University women’s basketball team still had some work left to do. BU held off a furious second-half rally to oust Northeastern University 83-78 at Case Gymnasium.
At halftime, the game seemed to be a laugher, with BU (2-3) holding a dominant 50-27 advantage. However, the Huskies (2-2) mounted a comeback that would come within four points of tying the game.
BU coach Kelly Greenberg was not dismayed by the closeness of the game.
‘To be honest, it really wasn’t a collapse,’ Greenberg said. ‘Northeastern just made all the shots that they had missed in the first half.’
This tale of two halves saw the teams flip shooting percentages after the break. BU started the game shooting 17-for-33 but only went 10-for-31 after halftime. Conversely, Northeastern’s shooters began 12-for-34, including 0-for-12 beyond the 3-point arc, but improved to 17-for-32 in the second half (6-for-18 in 3-point range).
A key to BU pulling ahead for the victory was the team’s clutch free throw shooting in the last minute of play. Senior Aly Hinton and freshman Caitlynn ‘Mo’ Moran made all of their free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
Moran led the team with 24 points, six assists and three steals, and was awarded America East Rookie of the Week honors Monday for the performance. Hinton pitched in 12 points and also pulled down seven boards, tying for the team lead with sophomore Caroline Stewart.
Other key contributors were sophomore Alex Young and freshman Chantell Alford, both at the guard spot. Young placed second on the team with her 19 points while Alford came off the bench to contribute 14 points and five assists.
Greenberg said the young guards are quickly becoming the go-to threats on the team.
‘I feel really excited about our guards,’ Greenberg said. ‘We have four very solid guards, in Chantell, Alex, Mo and Kat [Briggs]. Any of them can move the ball up and any can shoot the 3.’
Moran, in particular, has been impressive. The freshman out of John Jay High School was named the America East Rookie of the Week.’ She leads the team with per-game averages of 14.6 points and 3.0 assists.
In order to achieve their goal of an NCAA berth, BU must improve away from home. Despite going undefeated in two games at Case Gym, the Terriers have been outscored by an average of 18.3 points through three road games.
A road-heavy upcoming schedule could bury the Terriers’ season if improvement is not made. BU travels to Brown University, Harvard University and Yale University in the next two weeks. Following that, BU will reel off six straight road games after Christmas.
Greenberg is not looking ahead just yet, however. Two days before their tilt with Brown, the Terriers are simply looking at improve their own level of play.
‘We haven’t even talked about Brown yet,’ Greenberg said. ‘It’s still early in the season and we just want to get better. We want to look back at what we haven’t done well and fix it.’
Elsewhere in America East, the University of Vermont has gotten off to a perfect 4-0 start. The Catamounts are led by two senior guards averaging over 20 points-per-game, May Kotsopoulos and Courtnay Pilypaitis. The University of Hartford, not far behind at 4-1, has withstood the loss of junior guard Mary Silvia for the first four games of its season. Silvia returned to post 20 points against Temple University.
The most valuable player of the conference so far this season has been University of Maryland-Baltimore County sophomore guard Michelle Kurowski. The 5-foot-9-inch guard has earned two out of the first three America East Player of the Week honors and leads her team with 19.4 ppg and 8.4 rpg.
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