Instant takeaways from BU women's basketball's 71-51 loss at Colgate
Turnovers doomed the Terriers on the road against a strong opponent.
One of the problems for the Boston University women’s basketball team is that there hasn't been only one problem, and on Saturday afternoon at Colgate, a once-fatal flaw that had somewhat disappeared returned to kill BU.
That was the turnovers.
In its 71-51 loss to the Raiders, BU committed 21 turnovers, tied for its highest mark of conference play and highest since a home loss to Navy on Jan. 22.
The Terriers (8-16, 2-11 PL) took 17 fewer field-goal attempts than the Raiders. Discrepancies like that were a constant during BU’s first 18 games of the season, but in BU’s prior five games before Saturday, the most it had been outshot by was six, and in two of those games, it finished with more attempts than its opponent.
Head coach Melissa Graves said after that defeat to Navy, in which her team took 16 less field goals than the Mids, that it was “almost impossible,” to win a game like that.
And against the Raiders (19-4, 9-4 PL), that was no different. During one critical stretch in the third quarter, after BU had cut a 9-point Colgate lead to one, the Terriers committed turnovers on three consecutive possessions. Colgate immediately opened up a 11-point lead that it rode to victory.
Here are two more takeaways from the loss:
BU shot itself in the foot early, and it was costly.
The Terriers committed four turnovers in the backcourt in the first quarter — three of them directly off an under-the-basket inbounds pass — and almost committed two more. Colgate scored off three of those giveaways. BU also allowed four offensive rebounds in the opening frame.
Colgate eventually opened up an 18-10 lead and finished the quarter leading, 20-15, despite shooting only 41 percent from the field. BU shot 60 percent, but the Raiders had seven more field goals and didn’t commit a turnover.
It meant BU had to chase the game — again.
BU has only led after the first quarter in four of its 13 conference games. After the second quarter? Only twice, though two more games were tied.
The Terriers trailed, 34-25, entering halftime, after the turnovers and rebounding issues continued in the second quarter.
Aoibhe Gormley and Inés Monteagudo played well again.
Gormley finished with a season-high 16 points on Wednesday against Bucknell while missing only one shot, killing the Bison with aggressive drives to the basket.
She only had six on Saturday, but still looked good getting downhill. BU’s starting point guard also had six assists and four rebounds.
As for fellow sophomore guard Monteagudo — she had 10 points and was 3 of 6 from downtown off the bench. One of the few sharpshooters on BU’s roster, Monteagudo reached double-figures for the fourth time during conference play. She is shooting 39 percent from 3 in PL games.
Sophomore forward SiSi Bentley, who retook her place in the starting lineup from Monteagudo, also played well, finishing with a team-high 17 points. She added 5 rebounds, 3 steals and a block and was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.