BU women's basketball suffers costly loss to Loyola Maryland
The Terriers offered little defensive resistance as Loyola displayed its best offensive performance of the season.
BOSTON — When head coach Melissa Graves and freshman forward Allison Schwertner were presented with Saturday’s final stat sheet in the Eilberg Lounge above Case Gym, they both had a hand on their sunken head, trying to make sense of the loss that just occurred.
Following a 52-49 victory over two-time defending league champion Holy Cross, the Boston University women’s basketball team was in a prime position to win consecutive games for just the second time this season, and the first during Patriot League play.
But against a smaller, injury-ravaged Loyola Maryland, which entered the contest with only one conference win, the Terriers fell, 72-68, after failing to defend and rebound all night.
“Just no consistency,” said Graves.
BU (8-13, 2-8 PL) had a final chance late. With 7.4 seconds left and down by three, sophomore guard Aoibhe Gormley raced up the floor and had a clean look at a game-tying pull-up 3. But her shot caromed off the back heel and into the arms of Greyhound forward Amandine Amorich with just 0.2 ticks on the clock.
The big question for BU: Where do the wins come from?
Loyola Maryland (8-13, 2-8) was one of BU’s most winnable games left on the schedule. Its only win in conference play was against 1-20 American.
But according to Graves, the Terriers did not have a strong week at practice. It showed. And it almost feels more costly against one of the few teams that BU should be beating, especially at home.
“We didn’t have good practices this week,” Graves said. “And we’re too young to just be gamers and come out and just play.”
The Greyhounds entered Saturday’s tilt averaging 53.4 points per game during conference play, second-worst in the PL. The Greyhounds were also third-worst in field goal percentage — 39.9 percent — and worst from beyond the arc — 24.3 percent.
But Loyola scored 72, shot 57.8 percent from the field and made 7 of 10 3-pointers.
A 57.8 percent clip from the floor and 70 percent from 3 are Loyola’s best shooting splits of the season. The Greyhounds' 72 points are the third-most, trailing only games against Division 3 Haverford College and American.
“We just had too many defensive lapses today,” Graves said.
It wasn’t just lapses, however. BU struggled to defend all game.
In the second quarter, the Terriers did not get a defensive stop for close to seven minutes. Yet, that was Loyola’s worst quarter by field-goal percentage — 50 percent. When the Greyhounds missed looks, they swooped in for offensive rebounds and cashed in on the second chance.
In the first quarter, BU failed to keep senior guard Laura Salmeron from piercing the middle. Late in the frame, Salmeron drove into the lane past sophomore Ines Monteagudo. Monteagudo, a step behind, fouled Salmeron on the layup.
“TAKE AWAY MIDDLE!” Graves yelled out.
On the very next possession, Salmeron beat BU middle again and dished to senior forward Koi Sims for a wide-open layup.
Salmeron continued to torch the Terriers in the second half. She hit two early 3s in the third quarter, forcing Graves to call a timeout. On the first, Gormley didn’t have a hand up. On the second, Salmeron was left wide open after sophomore forward Audrey Ericksen failed to chase her on a stagger screen.
“One of them, we didn’t have a high hand on her. One we didn’t chase the stagger,” said Graves. “It was just mental lapses on the coverage.”
Salmeron added a crucial right-handed floater that gave the Greyhounds a five-point lead with 17.5 seconds remaining and netted a pair of free throws seconds later. She finished with a career-high 28 points on 10-for-14 shooting and 4 of 5 from 3.
“We couldn’t guard her,” Graves said. “She was phenomenal today. Very, very difficult to guard.”
The Terriers were also ineffective on the glass. BU tied a season-low with 19 rebounds. The Greyhounds, whose tallest starters are five-foot-11, corralled 30.
“I didn’t think we should’ve lost on the glass by that margin,” said Graves. “I thought we could have had a better showing.”
When the Terriers did find success, it was through Schwertner, who notched a career-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
Schwertner took six trips to the line and scored with ease against Loyola’s smaller frontcourt.
“Obviously they’re a smaller team, but you can’t take anyone lightly,” said Schwertner. “Just going in every game being aggressive is the mentality that we need to have.”
Senior guard Alex Giannaros added 20 points, nine of which came at the free throw line.
“Alex obviously created some advantages for us and got downhill,” said Graves.
BU and Loyola went into halftime tied at 33, with Gormley scoring a buzzer-beating layup to cap off a 7-0 Terrier run.
But BU’s defensive adjustments never materialized into stops in the second half. The Terriers tried man, zone and a press. The press resulted in 11 BU steals, but when the Terriers didn’t create turnovers, they were allowing great looks.
“We struggled a bit. I mean, throughout the game really, but especially that second half,” Graves said. “They were really getting downhill, we could not guard [Salmeron], like it just became really difficult for us.”
BU cut the deficit to three and had a chance to tie with Gormley’s 3, but the Terriers trailed for the final 16 minutes.
And now at 2-8, with a home loss to lowly Loyola, it certainly seems as if BU’s plan to “Run It Back” to the Patriot League Championship Game is far out of the realm of possibility.
This time last season, Graves was asking the media about the results of other strong Patriot League teams. This season, Graves is focused on improvements in practice.
“The biggest focus for us right now is to try to practice the way we want to play,” said Graves. “That’s our biggest goal right now as a team.”