On Wednesday night, the Boston University women’s basketball team defeated the Binghamton University Bearcats 65-60 in a game full of lopsided runs, lead changes, and late-game heroics.
BU (11-9, 8-0 AE) got off to a rough start in the first half and fell into a quick 5-0 hole, forcing Greenberg to call a timeout. The Bearcats were already up 9-2 when BU avoided an early dagger, as Binghamton (13-8, 6-2 AE)guard Orla O’Reilly had a near three-pointer that went in and out of the basket. Junior forward Caroline Stewart came down with the rebound while narrowly avoiding falling out of bounds to give BU possession.
“Binghamton came out and obviously was on fire and did a lot of very good things on both ends of the floor,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg.
The Bearcats extended their lead to 11-2 before BU went on a 24-5, 10-minute run. A three-pointer by sophomore guard Mo Moran completed the comeback, tying the game at 13-13, and sophomore guard Chantell Alford followed that up with a three-pointer of her own to give BU the lead just 36 seconds later.
Sharp three-point shooting was a theme throughout the night for the Terriers, as they shot 50 percent (6 of 12) from beyond the parabola, including Alford’s 3-of-4 effort.
“I am a fan of the three-point shooting,” Greenberg said, taking a moment to pause, then continuing, “when they go in. We have very good three point shooters, and that was big for us. When we’re open, you have to shoot it.”
The second half opened with a quick 6-0 BU run, pushing Binghamton into taking a timeout of its own. That pushed BU’s lead all the way to 17, but the Bearcats came charging back and went ahead 55-54 with 4:11 remaining. BU responded with a 3-pointer from senior guard Kat Briggs seconds later to take the lead for good.
Briggs, ironically, was put in for specifically for defense late in the game.
“Kat is our defensive specialist,” Greenberg said. “She’s a senior, has a lot of experience and really knows her role. She really understands what we’re trying to do as a team defensively and is just really, really tough.”
Briggs, who finished with five points and two rebounds, also had a key assist in the last minute of the game to senior center Kerry Cashman. Cashman’s layup extended BU’s lead to 63-60 and capped off her night of 13 points and eight rebounds.
“That’s a play we don’t run too often, and we had two options out of it. I never thought that was going to be the one we got and it was just terrific. It couldn’t have happened to two better people,” Greenberg said.
When Binghamton guard Jackie Ward missed a three-point opportunity with three seconds left, Moran came down with the rebound to cement the victory for BU. Moran played all 40 minutes while racking up a team-high 16 points to go with six rebounds, three steals and quite a few hard falls onto the hardwood at Agganis Arena.
“I’ll be sore tonight, but it’s nothing some ice won’t cure,” Moran said with a smile.
With the win, the Terriers have run their win streak to eight and completed a perfect first half of their conference schedule. Having beaten every team in the league, the team knows the rest of the conference will likely be tougher the second time around.
“We definitely have a target on our back,” Moran said. “We know every team is gunning for us.”
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