Boston University women’s basketball routs Loyola Maryland in the PL First Round
The Terriers routed the Greyhounds, highlighted by 26 and 27-point quarters and a stifling defensive effort.
BOSTON — When the first-quarter buzzer sounded on Saturday afternoon, the scoreboard read TERRIERS 26, LOYOLA 9.
The Boston University women’s basketball team had just scored on 10 straight possessions to cap its most productive quarter of the season.
But the first quarter didn’t even end as BU’s highest-scoring frame. The Terriers scored 27 third-quarter points, matching a season-high in a single quarter, on 8-of-10 shooting and 8 for 12 from the free-throw line.
And yet, head coach Melissa Graves’ biggest takeaways from BU’s 75-51 win over Loyola Maryland at Case Gym in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament were defense and rebounding.
“It was a great defensive game,” Graves said in her opening statement. “They locked into the game plan and what we needed to do. And a big piece of that was the rebounding part.”
Loyola’s 51 points (on 19-of-52 shooting) were the fourth-fewest BU has allowed this season. The Terriers nearly doubled up the Greyhounds in the rebounding battle, corralling 36 to Loyola’s 19.
“To get stops and finish that with a rebound and be able to push in transition the way we want to, I thought that made the game,” Graves added. “Just the defense and the rebounding.”
The Terriers (12-18, 5-13 PL) were ready from the jump, flying around in a full-court press to nearly force a 10-second violation on Loyola’s first possession of the game. On Loyola’s second possession, sophomore forward SiSi Bentley, who operated at the top of BU’s press, came away with her first of five steals.
“When you talk about the first quarter and the energy and the piece of how we started, I thought it was really fueled from the press,” said Graves.
Even when the Greyhounds (9-21, 3-15 PL) advanced the ball past midcourt, BU’s pressure drained time and resulted in several low-percentage shots late in the shot clock.
By the end of the first quarter, Loyola had turned it over five times, three of which were steals by Bentley, and were just 3 of 9 from the field.
“My defense brings a lot of energy to the team and it gets us going,” Bentley said. “I kind of take on that role, and I enjoy it a lot.”
On the offensive end, the Terriers scored with so much ease that it looked like they were running 5-on-0 sets at points during their stretch of 10 straight scoring trips.
Sophomore guard Aoibhe Gormley circled the lane before converting a reverse layup. Two possessions later, she whizzed a no-look pass to Bentley for a wide-open layup at the right block.
Midway through the run, sophomore forward Audrey Ericksen laced the twine on back-to-back corner 3-pointers set up by baseline drive-and-kicks from senior captain Alex Giannaros and sophomore guard Bella McLaughlin.
“It’s really easy to have confidence when everyone’s making shots and everyone’s making the right passes,” said Ericksen.
The Terriers extended their lead to as many as 21 points in the first half, 33-12, on the strength of a 22-5 run, and entered the break leading 36-18.
BU then erupted for 27 points in the third, highlighted by an almost unfair 3-on-1 transition bucket. After Gormley snagged a long rebound, she ran in transition with Giannaros and Ericksen on either side and just one green jersey back to defend. Gormley drew Loyola’s lone defender and kicked out to Giannaros, third in program history in made 3-pointers, on the left wing for a wide-open triple. Giannaros buried it, giving the Terriers a 50-25 lead midway through the quarter.
The Terriers scored on 14 of their 16 possessions in the frame.
“We did a really good job getting downhill, finding out, finding drift passes, playing in transition, finding openings, playing in the post,” said Graves.
Translated: BU was excellent at everything on the offensive end.
The Terriers shot 27 of 53 from the floor, 8 of 16 from deep, grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, dished out 19 assists and committed 11 turnovers. All of those marks are top-three performances in the respective stats this season. BU’s 75 points were the fourth-most it has scored this season.
BU had four scorers in double figures, led by junior forward Anete Adler’s 13 on 5-of-9 shooting. Bentley and Ericksen scored 11 apiece. Giannaros added 10. The Terriers also had seven scorers with five or more points and 11 players got on the scoresheet.
“They have a mentality of selflessness, of they want to do what’s best for the team and for the team to win,” Graves said. “They are more than willing to share the basketball with each other.”
The Terriers, however, have a much tougher test awaiting 6 p.m. on Monday night at the outright Patriot League regular-season champion, Lehigh.
In the Eilberg Lounge postgame, Graves told video coordinator Adia Maund not to worry about film from Saturday’s beatdown of Loyola. “Just get me the stuff on Lehigh,” Graves said.
Realistically, there’s not a whole lot to learn from a game in which BU did just about everything right, like it did on Saturday.
There is a whole lot to study on Lehigh, though. BU split the season series with the top-seeded Mountain Hawks (24-6, 15-3 PL). The win, which came at Case Gym a week and a half ago, was BU’s best of the season. The Terriers shot a season-high 55.1 percent and put up 80 points. Its loss in Bethlehem, Pa. was uncompetitive, as Lehigh erupted for 50 second-half points in an 80-54 win.
“We obviously split with them. And so I think there is a feeling of ‘Hey, we know we can compete with them if we are locked in,’” said Graves.
“Coming off a game where everyone was able to contribute offensively, we put up 75 points. That’s something we’re going to probably have to do to win on the road against them,” she concluded.
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