The Boston University women’s basketball team may have been wearing those home white jerseys with the scarlet trim Saturday afternoon at Case Gymnasium.
That also looked like the Terriers (15-10, 10-6 America East) jogging out to player introductions at the start of the contest. And that certainly was Katie Terhune being honored at center court before the game as the first active player in school history to have her number retired.
But if you ask any of the 653 fans who witnessed BU fall 68-65 to Binghamton University this weekend at “The Roof” – sending coach Margaret McKeon’s squad to its third loss in four games – they might say that was a different Terrier team trying to keep pace with an overpowering band of Bearcats (16-8, 11-5).
BU shot nearly 40 percent from the floor in the contest (and 58 percent from behind the three-point line), but after racking up 22 fouls, committing 20 turnovers and watching Terhune (nine points on 4-13 shooting) struggle to find her game, the Terriers just couldn’t find the rhythm that carried them to a seven-game winning streak earlier in February.
And as McKeon pointed out after the game, BU was missing an even more integral part of the team – forward Marisa Moseley. With the senior out for her third straight game due to a partial tear to her MCL, McKeon said the Terriers were forced to become a totally different team.
“When you have a senior who’s played so many minutes in Marisa Moseley, who gives us our communication and leadership on the court, and she’s not there, it kills our rotation,” the fifth-year coach said. “Take one person from the top teams in the league, like Maine, anyone, take a top three player off Binghamton, you’re gonna be a different team – period.”
With the loss, BU fell into third place in the conference standings while Binghamton, which has won each of its last five contests, captured sole possession of the second spot. The Bearcats dominated in the blocks all day, tallying 18 points in the paint in the first half alone, as the Terriers’ post defense broke down without the 6-foot-2-inch Moseley helping out down low.
Junior forward Adrienne Norris’s 22-point, 13-rebound performance – her third double-double on the year – was one of only a few bright spots for an injury-plagued BU lineup.
“I think what hurt us the most was our defense – we had people playing at different spots than they normally did,” said Moseley, who expects to sit out until the conference tournament starts two weeks from now. “When you give people point blank shots, anybody can make that … We need to play more physical and basically we need to demand more of our defense, and I don’t think that we’re going to be giving up those kinds of baskets.”
Those kinds of baskets hurt BU from the start. As the Bearcats used an early 10-point run to go up 13-6 with 13:26 to play in the first frame, the Terriers were basically just trying to keep up with a more-physical Binghamton squad.
McKeon’s crew didn’t even know what the paint looked like in the first half, as the team’s first 21 points all came on threes. BU didn’t hit a non-three-point field goal until Terhune hit a runner with 11 seconds to play before intermission, as nine of the home team’s 10 first-half baskets came from behind the arc.
And oddly enough, the Terriers, who are averaging more than 12 swipes per contest, only forced four steals in the opening period as the Bearcats went into the locker room with a 19-12 edge in the rebounding department and a 41-31 advantage on the scoreboard.
“I don’t think we ran an offense for the first 17 minutes,” McKeon said. “I thought we were very stagnant, very back-on-our-heels, not really playing together at all. It seems like they kind of hit us with a punch, and we kind of got flurried back.”
But as the second half started, McKeon said her team just tried to stay positive as it slowly clawed back into the game. Using a 15-3 run early in the frame, the Terriers pulled to within three at 49-46 with 11:12 to play. As the teams traded baskets down the stretch, BU finally took the lead 62-61 – the first time since four minutes into the game – on a pair of Becky Bonner (16 points) free throws with three minutes remaining.
Binghamton went back up 68-65 on a Kristin Hibler (team-high 18 points) basket, forcing the Terriers to take a timeout with nine seconds to play. But even with the set play, BU couldn’t catch a good look at the hoop as the Bearcats deflected the team’s final two shots to seal the win.
Good look or not, however, junior Larissa Parr said that the game boiled down to the Terriers’ defense – or lack thereof.
“We just didn’t play post defense,” said Parr, who has become the primary replacement for Moseley in the starting lineup. “I am a post player, so I can say that. Anything we did we would get a foul, so we just stood there with our hands up, and they could just shoot over us all night.”
Despite taking the loss, however, McKeon said it wasn’t a bad loss for her team, which still has two games to play to try to recapture the league’s second-place spot.
“Now we just have to find a way to win two,” she said. “Yeah, we need someone to help us, we need Binghamton to lose, and if that happens, then we’re right there again. So it’s not over until the fat lady sings, and I ain’t singing yet.”