Behind Alex Giannaros' dominance, BU women's basketball cruises to victory in season opener against Northeastern
The Terriers' senior captain and returning All-Patriot League selection showed her elite ability as a number one option from the opening tip, finishing with 23 points and five 3-pointers.
BOSTON – Alex Giannaros was just as good as advertised.
The BU women’s basketball senior captain and returning All-Patriot League selection showed her elite ability as a number one option from the opening tip.
On the season’s opening play, the Terriers struggled to penetrate inside or create any space on the perimeter. Enter Giannaros, who caught a pass with under five seconds remaining on the shot clock. She crossed up her defender and drained a straightaway 3 as the buzzer sounded.
Giannaros continued to hit heavily contested jumpers throughout the contest, finishing with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting and five 3-pointers as BU cruised to a wire-to-wire 60-48 win over Northeastern (0-1) at Case Gym on Monday.
Terriers not named Alex Giannaros were 11-for-38 shooting.
“We have a ton of new people, and, you know, they’re going to be nervous, and that’s going to take time,” Giannaros said. “So I knew that I was going to have to step up.”
BU (1-0) has seven newcomers. Freshmen and sophomores make up 75 percent of the roster.
“First game of the year with a young crew, I think a lot of people were interested to see how we would be this year. We’re a very different team,” BU head coach Melissa Graves said.
But as long as BU’s experienced shooting guard was on the court, the worries seemed to fade away.
“I’m old now I guess,” Giannaros joked.
The Terriers started on a 14-5 run , shooting 5 of 7 from the field. They turned defense into offense and got out in transition, an area they have drilled for extended periods in every practice.
But the cushion dwindled to four as BU did not score for 4 minutes and 54 seconds.
Giannaros then spearheaded a 9-0 run, drilling a heavily contested pull-up 3 and nailing another from deep off a pass from sophomore point guard Aoibhe Gormley. It gave BU a 25-12 advantage, with Giannaros outscoring the Huskies, 13-12, at the 6:14 mark of the second quarter.
Gormley found a lane to the rim on the next offensive possession and finished with an easy layup, as the Huskies locked in on Giannaros.
“If they’re going to focus so much on me, it’s going to get other people on the team open,” Giannaros said. “Aoibhe had great drives to the hoop.”
Once Giannaros subbed out, for the final 2:43 of the first half, BU struggled mightily to find offense.
Northeastern went on an 8-0 run.
It took until there were 1.6 seconds left for the Terriers to score. Gormley drew two defenders at the top of the key before whizzing a pass to an open Sisi Bentley at the block. Bentley, a sophomore forward, finished the buzzer-beating layup as BU took a 29-22 lead into the break.
Gormley finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists to just 1 turnover, looking poised while operating the offense.
But when asked about her performance postgame, Gormley lamented a few missed layups at the rim.
“Aoibhe shows a lot of humility,” Graves interrupted. “She had six assists to one turnover, which is huge for as much as she has the ball in her hand.”
“Her goal is to have zero turnovers, which I told her is impossible, but she wants to be at the top of the league as far as assist-to-turnover ratio. And I think this was a great start for her,” Graves continued.
Less than three minutes into the second half, Gormley and Giannaros picked up where they left off. BU’s lead had dwindled to five, 31-26, after two free throws by Northeastern’s Abigail Jegede. But Gormley caught the Huskies sleeping. She received the inbounds pass and immediately hurled the ball up the floor to Giannaros on the left wing. Giannaros let it fly, connecting once again from deep.
“Aoibhe’s a great point guard. She’s gonna find people when they’re open,” said Giannaros.
Gormley dished it back.
“Alex gets my assists up when she makes all those shots, so that’s nice,” said Gormley.
Midway through the third quarter, BU led, 38-30. The Huskies continued to stick around. Giannaros put them away with one last scoring burst — a solo 7-0 run.
Giannaros connected on a stepback midrange jumper. She followed it with a step back straightaway 3. And for good measure, Gormley hauled in a defensive rebound and found Giannaros out in transition for a layup that stretched the BU advantage back to 15.
From there, the Terriers enabled cruise control, emptying the bench in the fourth quarter en route to a season-opening win.
“Really happy,” said Graves. “Not only with the win but that everyone was able to contribute tonight.”
