After knocking out the America East competition in Round 1 of AE play, the Boston University women’s basketball team came out strong in Round 2 with a 66-62 win over University of New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon at Case Gymnasium.
The win was BU’s (12-9, 9-0 AE) second victory over UNH (6-15, 3-6 AE) this month. The Terriers previously defeated the Wildcats 63-43 when they visited UNH on Jan. 6.
This game, though, was much more closely contested.
BU got off to a slow start – a recurring theme for the team as of late – but UNH could not take advantage. As BU’s shooting percentage hovered around 26 percent for most of the first 10 minutes, the Terriers and Wildcats traded leads five times.
“It’s very concerning,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg of the team’s slow starts. “I’m not quite sure why that’s happening. [UNH] definitely came out with more energy. That’s something that our coaching staff is really going to have to look at and make sure we fix, because one of these days we’re not going to have it in us to come back.”
Luckily for the Terriers, on Saturday they did have it in them. They warmed up as the half went on, and held a 32-27 lead as it came to a close, thanks in part to junior forward Caroline Stewart’s eight points and five rebounds.
Going into halftime, BU was shooting just 34.3 percent from the field, with a more impressive 41.7 percent from three-point range. Junior guard Alex Young chipped in nine points by halftime, all of them coming on a 3-of-5 three-pointer effort.
“I know that Coach has confidence in me with the ball, and in this game they left me open a lot,” Young said.
The second half started much differently than the first. BU went on a 13-2 run and led by as much as 13 with 12:24 to play. However, for the second game in a row, the Terriers blew a second-half double-digit lead. UNH slowly but surely worked its way back into the game, and led 57-55 with 4:45 left.
“I thought their zone definitely bothered us,” Greenberg said. “They got the momentum going their way, they went into zone, and got us away from feeling comfortable on offense. On the flip side, our defense was not great against certain players.”
One of those players was UNH forward Denise Beliveau, who exploded for 23 of her 24 total points in the second half. Beliveau also had 10 rebounds, all on the defensive end, to complete her double-double.
In the midst of UNH’s comeback, Beliveau fouled senior center Kerry Cashman, who immediately grabbed her arm in pain. Cashman made one of her two free throws, and then exited in favor of Stewart.
She returned moments later, but ended up fouling out with 1:25 to go to end her day with eight points and 11 boards.
“[Cashman] has a bad shoulder,” Greenberg said. “Even [on Friday] it popped out, so that happens a lot with Kerry. You just kind of have to get it back in there and she’s ready to roll. She’s a tough young woman, and I knew she’d go back in.”
BU responded to UNH’s 21-6 run with a quick 9-0 run of its own, highlighted by two more three-pointers by Young, to take the lead for good. UNH drew within two, 64-62, with 22.6 seconds left, but a Kat Briggs steal and two free throws put the game away for the Terriers, who recorded their ninth straight win.
The four-point margin of victory is the lowest of any win during the Terriers’ month-long win streak, and it is something from which they are pulling positives.
“I think not blowing teams out by 20 a game helps because [when we do], we don’t really learn much,” Young said.
Greenberg, though, only half-agreed.
“It’s always good to be in some close games because it does make you better in [certain] situations, and you’re ready for the next game,” Greenberg said, “but we do have to play a lot better than we have.”
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.
