BU women's basketball hits new low in loss at Lehigh
After being outscored 50-21 in the second half, the Terriers have fallen to 1-4 in conference play.
There were no minced words when Melissa Graves shared her postgame thoughts following the Boston University women’s basketball team’s 80-54 loss at Lehigh on Wednesday evening.
BU, which had never dropped more than a game below .500 in Patriot League play during Graves’ first three seasons, is now 7-9 in year four and, more importantly, 1-4 in conference.
After taking a 33-30 lead into halftime, the Terriers hit a new low in Bethlehem, Pa. – being outscored 50-21 in the second half.
“Just the same as usual. Tale of two halves,” said Graves, with a tone suggesting how sick of losing she really is. “I thought we played really well in the first half. I thought we had a great defensive quarter in the second, and we were scoring the ball. And I thought we just lost focus coming into the third.”
The issues that have plagued BU all season were the same ones that cost the Terriers against Lehigh (13-4, 4-1 PL): turnovers, defensive rebounding (11 offensive rebounds allowed), a slow start and an inability to put together a full 40 minutes. It was all on display.
“We just have to get better. There’s no other answer,” Graves said.
BU had 21 turnovers, including eight in the opening five minutes, and when the Mountain Hawks opened up in a full-court press to begin the second half, BU’s turnover problems continued.
“Yeah, it’s not great,” said Graves. “We can’t come out in the second half and get flustered by pressure that we’ve played against, you know, for the whole year.”
Lehigh — the highest-scoring team in the Patriot League — scored 27 points from BU’s giveaways.
“Off a live-ball turnover, it’s almost impossible to be able to get back and match up in the capacity that we need to against a team that is scoring at that kind of clip,” Graves added.
Graves was forced to burn a timeout just 95 seconds into the contest after BU fell behind 5-0. She had to use another two and a half minutes into the second half after Lehigh opened on an 8-2 run to regain the lead — a lead BU would never reclaim.
When asked how frustrating that is, Graves put it bluntly.
“Extremely,” she said.
“It’s frustrating in that point, and it’s frustrating, you know, when I’m drawing things up or talking about things in the huddle, and then we just don’t do it” Graves continued.
It is not the first time Graves has mentioned frustration over a lack of execution out of the huddle, and it seems as if frustration is boiling over.
For a coach who always has positives to tell the media, Graves had almost nothing on Wednesday. She got as close as she could to calling out specific players without naming names.
“As a young team, you know, I think you have kids who have had experience and are focused and play hard, you know, I think an Aoibhe [Gormley], an Alex [Giannaros], a Bella [McLaughlin]. Those kids are really locked in and focused,” said Graves.
“A lot of the time it’s the younger kids going in, and they’re not focused on what I just said or what I drew up, and we don’t execute it correctly,” she continued.
After Graves’ timeouts early in each half, BU’s on-court play barely changed. The Terriers committed seven turnovers in under four minutes after her first-half stoppage. After her timeout in the third, they were unable to recapture the lead.
BU fell behind by double digits in the first quarter, only to go on a 16-0 run over 8 minutes and 23 seconds to take a 26-20 lead. Sophomore guard Ines Monteagudo drilled a transition 3 to give BU its first lead, 22-20. Seconds later she forced a steal and scored a fastbreak layup to put the Terriers up by four.
The Terriers used that run to enter the break leading, 33-30, despite 14 first-half turnovers. BU’s active 2-3 zone disrupted Lehigh’s second-quarter offense, as the Mountain Hawks shot just 3 for 16 and 2 of 12 from deep in the frame.
“I feel like we matched up better in the zone,” said Graves. “We were just really long and active in it. We were playing hard.”
But Lehigh exploded for 31 third-quarter points, the most it has scored in a quarter all season, to open up a commanding 15-point lead.
“When we came out in the third quarter, we just let up defensively,” Graves said.
BU went back and forth between man-to-man and zone defense. When the Terriers played man, Lehigh did whatever it wanted offensively. 3s, driving layups, post-ups, you name it. When the Terriers switched to zone, Lehigh drilled its 3s.
“We weren’t getting stops at all that quarter,” said Graves. “We went back and forth to both. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to really get many stops in either.”
Lehigh continued to grow its lead in the fourth quarter, outscoring BU 19-8 in the final frame. The Terriers looked like they were simply going through the motions while Lehigh continued to pour it on.
Freshman forward Allison Schwertner had a team-high 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting and added five rebounds. Monteagudo had her best performance of the season, notching 10 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Junior forward Anete Adler added 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks.
“I don’t think we’re a bad team,” Graves said. “I think we show spurts of being really good. I thought the first half was a great half for us, and we were winning at halftime.”
“Can we replicate that in the second half and have two full halves and four quarters of being a consistent team?” Graves questioned. “That’s the spot we need to get to. And I think once the lightbulb goes off, we’re going to be in a good place.”
Given the rate of improvement this season, or lack thereof, that lightbulb may never go off.