When the starting lineup for the Boston University women’s basketball team was announced prior to its game against the University of Florida on Saturday, the two dozen or so Gator fans sitting across the court from the BU bench must have seen it coming.
Moving their arms in the air to resemble an alligator chomping down on its prey, the dedicated swampland supporters marked the Terriers (0-2) as ‘gator bait.’ Forty minutes of fast-paced basketball later, their prophecy came true as BU fell to Florida, 66-56, in the first round of the BU Invitational at Case Gymnasium.
But for the Terriers, feeding time wasn’t over as Texas A ‘ M University rolled into ‘The Roof’ on Sunday to devour the home team 61-53 in the tournament’s consolation game. Unfortunately for BU, the Gators (2-0) and the Aggies (1-1) had set the menu for the Terriers’ opening weekend.
The main dish? Terrier meat.
Nonetheless, BU coach Margaret McKeon said that despite all the things the team had to work on after the losses, she feels two tough games against quality opponents will only help her team down the road.
‘We’ve got to go back to the drawing board,’ McKeon said. ‘These are a great two games, and it’s unfortunate we didn’t get a win, but they’re a great two games to look at … I think we’ll be a much better basketball team for playing these teams.’
Turnovers and some rough inside play hurt the Terriers in both games, but with Florida and Texas A ‘ M coming out of solid conferences (the Southeastern Conference and the Big XII, respectively), McKeon said she expected a great deal of athleticism and hard-nosed play from her opponents.
While McKeon said it would have been nice for BU to pull out a win in either of the games, she said she is not too worried that her team didn’t open up with two quick victories. Her main focus now is correcting the mistakes she saw in the two weekend contests before it gets too late into the season.
‘I just think that we’ve got a lot to work on,’ she said. ‘Once we take care of the turnovers and why the turnovers are occurring, which we can do, I think we’ll be a much better basketball team.’
In the first half of its game on Saturday, BU proved it could play with the bigger and more physical Gators. The Terriers were able to send Florida’s 6-foot-4-inch senior center Vanessa Hayden to the bench with two fouls in the first four minutes, opening up a hole in the paint for the center-less hosts.
Even with a 25-21 deficit at the half, BU only trailed Florida 24-21 in the rebound department. But with 15 turnovers and a 16.7 shooting percentage from behind the three-point arc, it was never able to hold a hold a lead for more than a couple minutes.
Almost three minutes into the second half, the Terriers were able to go on top 32-31 with a three-pointer from senior guard Katie Terhune, but that slim margin did not last long. Florida’s Danielle Santos knocked down a trey only seconds later to start a 16-0 Gator run over the next seven minutes. During that span, the Terriers committed eight of their 26 turnovers, as Florida junior Natashia Morehead (nine points, six rebounds) scored seven points all by herself.
BU junior transfer Becky Bonner, who was later named to the All-Tournament team, ended the drought with 10:07 to play with two of her game-high 20 points, but with a 13-point hole and a rested Hayden staring them in the face, the Terriers were unable to rebound from their poor play.
Hayden, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, would go on to tally a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds as the Gators pulled down 21 offensive boards. BU had only eight on the day.
Although the Terriers saw the game slip away in the final 20 minutes, McKeon said she thought the turning point of the game came in the first frame.
‘I really thought the game was won and lost in the first half,’ she said. ‘I thought we had opportunities from the foul line to maybe be tied or be up one or two with one-and-one attempts. I thought also we turned the ball over entirely too much. We couldn’t really handle their pressure.
‘Besides that, we were 2-12 from behind the three-point line [in the first half] and we had wide open looks,’ McKeon said. ‘Those are things that usually go down.’
Against Texas A ‘ M on Sunday, the Terriers looked as if they were the team that was going to make the big runs as they used an 11-point tear to tie the game at 17 with eight minutes remaining in the first half. Again, however, the team would turn the ball over far too often as it saw the visitors take it 30 times.
The Aggies would capitalize on the Terriers’ mistakes, as they stretched the lead to nine at one point to end any hope of a comeback. BU failed to record a field goal in the final 2:30 of the game.
Terhune, who only scored 10 points against Florida, struggled once again in the second game as she recorded just eight shots for eight points. Texas A ‘ M saw four of its players reach double figures, including a 12-point performance from sophomore guard Erica Roy.
‘Obviously Katie Terhune is right now struggling with her role,’ McKeon said. ‘She understands that she’s supposed to get shots, supposed to be a scorer for us. Katie’s going to get her offense.’
While the Terriers looked for answers after their loss, Florida later cruised to a 95-60 win over La Salle University in the tournament’s championship game. In the three-year history of the BU Invitational, the host team has never won or advanced to the weekend’s title game.
BU must now prepare for a matchup with the No. 6 Stanford University Cardinal Bonner’s former team on Friday, Nov. 28.