Instant takeaways from BU women's basketball's 74-64 loss to Navy
The Terriers kept it close but fell for the fourth consecutive time, dropping to 1-6 in Patriot League play.
BOSTON — After putting up a spirited fight but still losing to Army on Saturday, Melissa Graves admitted her Boston University women’s basketball team “felt defeated,” after falling to 1-5 in Patriot League play.
BU was so close to an enormous win against one of the four conference leaders but succumbed to a disastrous fourth quarter. Against another of the PL’s premier teams, Navy, at Case Gym on Wednesday morning, BU fought just as hard and was just as close… but got the same result.
The Terriers (7-11, 1-6 PL) lost to the Mids (14-4, 6-1), 74-64, their fourth consecutive loss.
Graves said BU showed it “could compete for a championship,” against Army, and four days later, the Terriers’ performance was even better. But after falling behind by 11 points after a sudden Navy burst late in the second quarter, BU couldn’t climb all the way back, despite cutting the lead to 3 with 2:37 to go.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
A frustrating season keeps sinking further.
“It’s not like we’re getting blown out by these teams,” said Graves after the loss on Saturday.
The Terriers again gave a quality opponent everything it could handle, but at 1-6 in the Patriot League and five games behind the top of the standings, BU needs real victories, not moral ones.
There are glimpses of a really good team, but for some reason, the Terriers — still — cannot put it together for a full 40 minutes. At the start of conference play, the first half was the problem. Then it was the entire second half. On Saturday, it was the fourth quarter and on Wednesday, it was the briefest of stints in the second and fourth quarters.
BU allowed too many open 3s.
Far too many. After Army took 29 3-pointers on Saturday, Navy threw up 32 on a series of equally open looks, and this time, the Mids made their shots. In a second quarter when Navy outscored BU, 31-18, the Mids were 7 of 10 from downtown.
Navy finished 11 of 32 from 3, after the Terriers entered allowing by far the most 3-point attempts of any Patriot League team during conference play.
The Terriers can’t have any complaints that their opponents are making contested shots; they aren’t, they’re making open ones. For as good as BU’s offense was on Wednesday, it couldn’t keep up with Navy’s, because the Terriers’ defense didn’t offer enough resistance.
Graves has repeatedly declared that BU’s defense needs to spark its offense, but the Terriers are currently allowing 68 points per game during the PL slate.
Defensive rebounding didn’t help BU’s cause, either; the Mids finished with 18 offensive rebounds and took 16 more shots than the Terriers.
Aoibhe Gormley and Bella McLaughlin powered an impressive offensive performance.
The sophomore point guard Gormley started for the fourth consecutive game and, in the midst of an up-and-down year, played one of her best games on Wednesday. She scored 8 points in the first half and didn’t miss a shot, all three of her field goals coming from aggressive drives to the cup.
Gormley is probably BU’s fastest player, and against Navy’s defense, which was wide open in the paint, Gormley found plenty of daylight moving downhill. She finished with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
BU’s second-fastest player is fellow sophomore point guard Bella McLaughlin, who was similarly effective on Wednesday. Off the bench, McLaughlin finished with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting. The Mids couldn’t keep either Gormley or McLaughlin in front of them.
Their penetration opened everything up for BU’s offense, which delivered one of its better performances of the year against a quality opponent. BU finished shooting 44.7 percent from the field.
Leading-scorer and senior captain Alex Giannaros finished with 15 points.