On Tuesday night, when the Boston University women’s basketball team visits University of Binghamton at 7 p.m., the Terriers will arguably be playing their most important game of the year for the third time in a row.
“We’re excited for it,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “We know every game means something. Even if we were in eighth place, I would hope we are the type of people to have some character and be ready to play the game.”
Luckily for the Terriers (14-12, 11-3 America East), they are nowhere near eighth place, and will have far more than just character to motivate them. The team begins the final week of conference play half a game behind first-place University of Maryland-Baltimore County and half a game ahead of third-place Binghamton (17-10, 10-4 AE). Following a loss to UMBC last Thursday—the team’s third straight—and a win over the weekend against Stony Brook University, the Terriers prepare for another contest with major playoff repercussions.
A key for BU will be, as Greenberg pointed out after the team’s win over Stony Brook, the team’s “toughness,” something she wants her team to improve on.
“The games we lost were very physical,” Greenberg said. “Down at UMBC, they were very physical. We have to expect that. As our players will tell you, at our practice [Saturday] I was a pain in the neck. I was not a soft coach. We do have to be physically prepared for teams. I do believe teams in our conference think that if they can play physical with BU, they have a chance, so we as a unit need to keep preparing for that.”
The Terriers showed some toughness back on Jan. 26, when they downed the Bearcats 65-60 at Agganis Arena. As sophomore guard Chantell Alford said that night, the team “gutted out” the victory, which was its eighth straight at the time.
“They want to knock us off, especially since it was a pretty close game here,” Greenberg said. “It’s going to be a big game and they’re going to be gunning for us.”
In that game, sophomore guard Mo Moran led the Terriers with 16 points, while Alford and senior center Kerry Cashman each chipped in 13.
Since then, Cashman has been on a rebounding tear, averaging 9.2 this season in conference play. However, she has fouled out several times, something Greenberg would like to see her control a bit more.
“Kerry has to learn, ‘I can’t foul on silly plays.’ She can’t pick up the fouls she’s picking up,” Greenberg said.
Another factor that could greatly affect the outcome is how the Terriers start the game.
Often this season, BU has dug itself into a double-digit hole in the first half, only to turn around for a dramatic come-from-behind victory. The team knows, though, that it will not be lucky every time.
“It was really important for us to try to come out strong [against Stony Brook],” said sophomore guard Kristin Sims. “But once we got ourselves going we knew we could do it.”
Greenberg, who has said in the past that BU needs to step up its energy level early on, agreed.
“We’ve got to come out better,” Greenberg said. “That’s really got to be our mindset going into our last two games, that we’ve got to come out strong. Playing catch-up is hard. It’s easy at home, but on the road it’s a lot harder.”
Coming back on the road will be especially difficult against Binghamton due to its home-court advantage. The Bearcats have averaged 1,518 fans at their 11 home games so far this season, which differs drastically from BU’s 391er home game. Only four times this season have the Terriers played in front of more than 1,000 people. That said, Greenberg is actually looking forward to the crowd because it will more likely emulate a playoff atmosphere.
“Binghamton gets a huge crowd. They probably average the most fans in our conference,” Greenberg said. “I’m very excited about it, because it is going to be a championship environment.”
The team will also play University of Vermont (5-23, 5-10 AE) at Case Gymnasium on Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. before moving on to the AE tournament, about which Greenberg feels confident.
“I really, truly believe we have all the parts,” Greenberg said. “We just have to make sure all the parts are in motion.”
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