The Boston University women’s basketball team had hopes of using its last few non-conference games of the season to build momentum for the beginning of America East play, but after a season-worst four-game losing streak, it seemed as if the Terriers could not reach conference play soon enough.
While most students were celebrating the end of the semester at home, the Terriers were faced with the daunting task of hosting one of the top teams in the nation, Stanford University. The Cardinal entered the game as the fifth-ranked team in the nation and overwhelmed BU with their size, outrebounding the Terriers 46-30 in route to a 69-55 victory. This game featured the second Top 10 team to visit the roof this year. On Nov. 23, the Terriers hosted then No. 8 Vanderbilt University, losing 68-51.
The Terriers then dropped consecutive road games, first to Marist University and then to the University of South Florida. Junior forward Marisa Moseley and junior guard Katie Terhune led the way for BU against Marist, scoring 13 points apiece in the 72-56 loss. In the South Florida game, the Terriers were led by sophomore Adrienne Norris’s career-high 22 points and team-high eight rebounds. Despite the career day from Norris, the Terriers fell to the Bulls, 85-69.
The team began the new year by dropping its fourth consecutive game, this time in overtime against Fordham University, 59-55. Norris led the Terriers in scoring for the second straight game with 11 points and was joined in double figures by senior guard Alison Argentieri, who added 10 points to go along with four assists. Freshman guard Katie Meinhardt made her second start of the season after missing the early portion of the Terriers’ schedule with an injury sustained in preseason workouts.
The four-game skid seemed to wake up the dormant Terrier offense, however, as the team exploded for 89 points in its next game, a blowout victory over Farleigh Dickinson University, capping the team’s season-long, four-game road trip. Terhune led all scorers with 27 points while Meinhardt, seemingly more comfortable with her starting role, chipped in with a career-high 24 points. BU warded off 20 first-half points by Nattallia Marchanka to put the Knights away with the help of 64.3 percent shooting from three point range.
The victory was a perfect way for the Terriers to wrap up the non-conference part of their schedule and begin focusing on the rigors of conference play. BU was picked to finish second in the America East in the preseason poll of the conference’s coaches behind the University of Vermont. The Terriers and head coach Margaret McKeon had been looking forward to their Jan. 12 match-up with the Catamounts in Vermont all year, with aspirations of proving that the road to the America East Championship goes through The Roof.
With this in mind, it would have been easy for the Terriers to overlook the University of Albany, which came to Case Gym on Thursday in the conference opener for both teams. This was not the case, however, as Terhune netted 27 points for the second game in a row as BU overcame an early deficit to dominate the Great Danes 87-68, extending Albany’s conference losing streak to 17 games.
After the Great Danes jumped out to a 16-9 lead six and a half minutes into the game, the Terriers went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 18. After back-and-forth play over the next few minutes, BU closed the first half with an 11-4 run to go up 40-33.
In the second half, the Terriers were in total control, shooting a season-high 61.9 percent from the field, due in large part to five-for-five shooting by Terhune. The Terriers reached another season-high in free throw attempts with 46, just two attempts shy of the BU record set in 1980 against Central Connecticut.
After two games in which BU scored a combined 176 points, the Terriers headed to Burlington to meet conference front-runner Vermont. In front of a crowd of 1,633 the Terriers fell 75-61 to the Catamounts, who benefited from a career-high 38 points from senior Morgan Hall to stake their claim to the top spot in the America East.
The Terriers closed the first half on a 12-4 run to pull within two points, 32-30. Terhune opened up the second half of play with a three-pointer to give BU a short-lived lead as Vermont (9-3, 1-1 America East) answered with a 12-4 run and a pivotal 11-0 run in which Hall scored 10 of her 24 second half points. Meinhardt led the Terriers with 21 points after shooting 5-11 from behind the arc. Terhune and sophomore forward Larissa Parr each added 12 in the loss for BU (4-9, 1-1 America East).
The Terriers showed a lot of resiliency in this contest, repeatedly battling back from double-digit deficits, only to fall short at the end. BU will have to wait until Saturday Feb. 22 to get revenge against Vermont, when the Catamounts visit Case Gymnasium in what should be a very important contest for each team.
Up next for the Terriers is a trip to Long Island to face the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Wednesday. The Terriers hope to replicate the strong performances they’ve handed out in each of their previous three games. The next home game for BU is this Saturday, when the University of Hartford comes to town.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
