BU women’s basketball enters the PL tournament as the eighth seed after falling at Navy
Turnovers and defensive rebounds cost the Terriers in their final game of the regular season.
The Boston University women’s basketball team lost its best chance at the seventh seed when it fell at Lafayette on Saturday. BU could’ve clinched it then and there, but instead let the opportunity slip through its fingers.
Entering Wednesday, the Terriers needed two outcomes: a win at Navy and a subsequent Lafayette loss at Loyola Maryland.
Neither result helped the Terriers, but any focus on that Lafayette game went out the window once BU fell, 60-47, at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md.
The Terriers (11-18, 5-13 PL) will enter the Patriot League tournament as the eighth-seed and host ninth-seeded Loyola Maryland (9-20, 3-15 PL) at Case Gym at 2 p.m. on Saturday. BU and Loyola split the season series, with each team earning a road win.
“We’re gonna obviously regroup and then focus on them, but it’s been more about like, ‘How do we want to finish conference play?’” said head coach Melissa Graves.
Just one week ago, the Terriers earned a third-consecutive victory for the first time this season — it came against first-place Lehigh (24-6, 15-3 PL). Graves and sophomore point guard Aoibhe Gormley both mentioned championship aspirations following that win, a high point in a season filled with many lows. But BU has lost its two games since, falling short of the seventh seed and trending in the wrong direction come the Patriot League tournament.
“I told them, it’s March. I didn’t think we played today with the urgency to know that it’s March,” Graves said. “We’re one and done at this point, right? So there has to be this sense of urgency.”
To win that opening round matchup at Case — and go on a run after that — the Terriers will have to clean up numerous areas. The two glaring issues on Wednesday were defensive rebounding and turnovers.
BU turned it over 14 times, 10 of which came in the opening half. Navy scored 17 points from those giveaways. The Terriers also conceded 19 offensive rebounds, which the Mids turned into 14 second-chance points.
“It came down to missed box outs and turnovers,” said Graves.
Navy, as a result, took 13 more field goals than BU. Graves noted postgame that the number is slightly inflated as the Terriers took seven more free throws, but the Mids undoubtedly took advantage of extra opportunities.
Navy, which forces the second-most turnovers in the Patriot League, made plays to force giveaways, but BU also had too many careless possessions. The Terriers had an offensive 3-second violation, two travels on the catch, multiple bobbled passes in the lane and other passes that whizzed right out of bounds.
When asked if the turnovers were forced or self-inflicted, Graves said, “I thought it was a little of both.”
BU held the Mids to 35 percent shooting from the field (22-for-63) and still trailed by double-digits for the final 5:55 of the contest.
“I thought defensively, we hit our goal,” Graves said. “We wanted to keep them to 62 or less. We kept them to 60.”
But it all came back to rebounding and turnovers, the same issue BU faced against Navy on Jan. 22, when the Mids took 16 more shots than the Terriers in a 74-64 win.
After that contest, Graves said it was “almost impossible” to win with that discrepancy in field goal attempts.
It becomes even more impossible when the Terriers shoot just 16 for 50 from the field, which they did on Wednesday. Additionally, BU shot 10 for 20 from the free throw line, its second consecutive game shooting at or below 50 percent at the stripe.
“We got to be able to step up and make free throws on the road,” said Graves. “We’re gonna get shots up, we’re gonna get free throws up. But they just have to be composed when they get to the line and try to make those.”
Star senior guard Alex Giannaros (6 points, 2-of-9 shooting) was trapped and never established a rhythm. Navy’s length and physicality impacted the rest of the Terriers, forcing tough shots over heavy contests.
“Alex was trapped the whole game, so it’s a little harder for her to create,” said Graves. “She was trying to get downhill. They’re a lot longer too for her to finish around the rim.”
The first 16 minutes were back-and-forth, but the Mids closed the final four minutes of the first half on a 14-3 run and took a 35-22 lead into halftime. Sophomore guard Kyah Smith (game-high 17 points) scored on three consecutive possessions, knocking down a 3-pointer, three free throws and a turnaround jumper in the lane.
BU fought back, outscoring Navy 16-11 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to eight. The Terriers shot 6 for 13 in the frame, led by eight points on 3-of-3 shooting from sophomore forward Audrey Ericksen. Ericksen sunk a pair of 3s and netted a driving layup just before the shot-clock buzzer. She finished with 11 points, her sixth game in double figures this season.
“Audrey, you know, she hit some shots for us,” Graves said.
The Terriers, however, followed up that frame by shooting 1 for 12 from the field in the fourth quarter. The lone field goal, a Gormley 3, came with 2:07 remaining. By that point, the Mids still led 57-46, and the contest was practically out of reach.
“I thought there were some things we could have finished, but just, you know, we didn’t convert,” said Graves.
As BU gears up for Saturday, it will look to regain some of the momentum it had a week ago. It's do or die from here on out, and four wins stand between the Terriers and an unprecedented run to the NCAA Tournament.
“We just gotta be able to lock in and be confident at home,” Graves said. “And then, like I said, be road warriors and get some upsets on the road.”