Looking to improve upon a narrow loss to Lehigh University, its best performance in recent memory, the Boston University women’s basketball team hit the road to face off against the United States Naval Academy Wednesday night.
Coming off a game in which the Terriers (4-18, 1-10 Patriot League) recorded their second highest point total of the season, they were unable to continue their momentum against Navy (13-9, 7-4 Patriot League) and dropped their sixth straight, and 15th of their last 16, by a score of 48-40.
The Terriers’ challenge on Wednesday night was much different than their previous outing. Following a matchup against Lehigh (15-6, 7-4 Patriot League) and their Patriot League-leading offense, the Terriers had to adjust to the defensive play of the Midshipmen. Coming into the game, Navy was ranked second overall in the league in terms of defensive points allowed with just 56.7 points per game.
While they’ve been strong all season defensively, the Midshipmen have been struggling offensively, ranked eighth in the Patriot League, just ahead of the Terriers.
Neither team came out looking strong, as both were unable to find the basket. On their first three possessions, the Terriers turned the ball over thrice, resulting in a 5-0 deficit. Scoring came in bunches. The teams would trade points on consecutive possessions, and then neither would score for nearly three minutes. Inconsistency prevailed, whether it was via the 3-pointer, the mid-range jumper or even the easy layup.
Both teams only had one stand out on offense, and for the Terriers, that was junior guard Clodagh Scannell. In the first half, she had eight points and went 4-for-6 from the floor, with the rest of the team only going 4-for-17. She would finish with 14. For Navy, senior Chloe Stapleton led the offense, finishing with 11 against the Terriers.
BU coach Katy Steding said she was very impressed with Scannell, both in her performance on Wednesday and her overall improvement this season.
“Clodagh has done some really excellent work,” she said. “She just continues to improve, especially in terms of her decision making – what’s a good shot, what do we need right now … She works really hard.”
While both teams struggled, Navy in particular took some questionable shots throughout. More often than not, they came up short on rushed jumpers, but were still able to convert with 12 offensive rebounds. Stapleton tied it at 14 with just less than six minutes left in the half. After a poor jump shot attempt that caromed off the side of the backboard, freshman Taylor Dunham was able to retrieve her own board, then get off and somehow sink a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer, capping a 14-4 Midshipmen run. That sent the Terriers into the locker room trailing 25-18.
The Terriers showed fight in the second half in whittling down a Midshipmen lead that was at one point as much as 13, down to just three. Overall, they were only outscored 23-22 in the second, but after a layup from guard Danielle Poblarp that came with under five minutes in the first, the Midshipmen refused to relinquish their lead for the rest of the night.
Steding said she admits that while the Midshipmen’s defense played well, a lot of the blame for the loss falls on the Terriers’ offense.
“I would like to give them credit,” Steding said. “I don’t think their defense was that outstanding or anything. They always play really hard. I think they play really well, they know what they were trying to achieve … but I think [our problem] was out and out our willingness to finish. We missed 15 layups. We gotta sink those layups. We’re getting the shots.”
While the Terriers outshot Navy 38.3 percent to 35.1 percent, their lack of perimeter shooting cost them dearly, as the Terriers sank only one of their 10 attempts from long range on the night. The Midshipmen found much more success, draining five of 15.
Though the Terriers performance has been subpar as of late, Steding said she still remains optimistic.
“Our effort is there. I’ve always said that,” she said. “We’re trying to impart to the team that we’re still right there. We’ve had to deal with a lot of adversity. We’re very short-handed, and yet they keep coming to work. They keep showing up. Half the battle, everyone knows, is showing up, and they do that. It’s just the rest of the battle that’s sometimes eluding us.”
