Boston College might be Boston University’s traditional rival, but as far as women’s basketball goes, the Terriers have found a new rival, someone other than their traditional foe from the Atlantic Coast Conference: the University of Hartford Hawks.
The two teams have met in three of the last six America East championship games to fuel the budding rivalry, and Sunday afternoon’s matchup at Case Gymnasium was no exception to the tradition of close battles as the Terriers came from behind to beat the Hawks by a score of 58-50.
BU had several sources of motivation for this game—a large, energized home crowd, the team’s annual “Pink Zone” game to raise awareness for breast cancer, as well as putting its undefeated conference record and six-game winning streak on the line—but the fact that Hartford was on the other bench made the biggest difference.
“Probably the biggest part is that it was Hartford,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “There is no question that they have been our rivals the last few years. There is not a lot of love out there, and I thought our team really gutted it out.”
It was a gritty and physical game from the start as Hartford came out of the gates strong and BU sloppy. The Hawks held an 8-2 lead after nearly five minutes, but the Terriers did not let the game get out of hand and were down just 27-20 at the half.
Sophomore guard Mo Moran, who had a season- and team-high 19 points to go with five assists in the win, said BU was caught a little off guard to start the game.
“They knew a lot of our plays, so we had to step it up and do some different things,” Moran said.
As far as Greenberg was concerned, the halftime deficit was a result of one thing: toughness. Greenberg addressed this in her halftime talk with the team.
“The main message was that [Hartford] was tougher than us in the first half, and that can’t happen,” Greenberg said.
The talk may have marked a turning point for BU, because the team came out stronger in the second half. A 16-5 BU run covered the first 10 minutes of the half, and the two teams traded leads and stayed close most of the rest of the way. Overall, Greenberg said she was happy with her team’s toughness against the newfound rivals.
“I give Hartford a lot of credit,” Greenberg said. “They came out and they were ready to do something and mixed up some things we’ve seen on tape, but the bottom line was that our team was tougher in the end.”
BU’s offensive output in the second half was nearly double that of the first half, despite the Terriers’ limitations and the Hawks’ familiarity.
“We only ran two offenses [in the second half] and we still got something out of it, even though Hartford knows them inside and out,” Greenberg said.
BU now leads the all-time series between the two teams, 29-27, but Hartford will have a chance at revenge on Feb. 13 when the Terriers visit the Hawks. As senior center Kerry Cashman, who hauled in 14 rebounds and scored nine points, put it, this win makes BU better prepared for that matchup.
“They are, as Coach said in our halftime talk, the smartest team we are going to see, and it threw us off a little bit,” Cashman said. “We weren’t allowed to get the shots that we normally get, but I think now we are prepared for not having our offense run so easy.”
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