Instant takeaways from BU women's basketball's 60-47 loss at Navy
The Terriers will enter the Patriot League tournament as the eighth seed after struggling on the defensive glass against Navy.
The Boston University women’s basketball team will enter the Patriot League tournament as the eighth seed.
BU would have earned the seventh spot — and a home game against one-win American — with a win over Navy and a Lafayette loss on the road to Loyola Maryland.
The Terriers, however, were hamstrung by the same deficiencies that cost them against the Midshipmen earlier this season — defensive rebounding and turnovers. As a result, Navy took 13 more shots than BU.
After a back-and-forth first 15 minutes, Navy ended the half on a 14-3 run and kept separation from there as BU fell, 60-47, at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md., on Wednesday evening.
BU will host Loyola Maryland in the first round of the Patriot League tournament at Case Gym on Saturday. The two sides split the season series, with the road team winning each matchup.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss to Navy…
First-half turnovers were critical.
During conference play, Navy has forced the second-most turnovers in the Patriot League, with an average of 16.2 per contest. While the Mids defense certainly impacted some of BU’s turnovers — such as a shot clock violation on the game’s opening possession — the Terriers were also far too careless in the first half.
BU finished the game with 14 turnovers but had 10 in the opening 20 minutes. Navy scored a whopping 15 points off turnovers in the first half.
BU opened the second quarter with back-to-back turnovers, both off of errant passes. It replicated the issue following the next stoppage — a timeout from head coach Melissa Graves midway through the quarter. When the Terriers exited the timeout, they were called for an offensive 3-second violation and whistled for a travel on the catch on consecutive possessions.
BU had several other unforced turnovers where it simply dropped a pass out of bounds or traveled on the catch. Graves clapped her hands in frustration when sophomore forward SiSi Bentley dropped a pass that would have led to a wide-open layup to begin the fourth quarter.
BU gave up too many offensive rebounds.
The last time these two foes met, at Case Gym on Jan. 22, Navy coralled a whopping 18 offensive rebounds. That number was even higher on Wednesday night.
The Mids snagged 19 offensive rebounds. Navy is the best offensive rebounding team in the Patriot League, averaging 12.4 per game in conference play, but the Terriers have no shortage of size. The Mids simply swooped in on too many occasions, and BU failed to end defensive possessions with strong box-outs.
Navy scored 14 second-chance points to BU’s 3.
The Mids shot just 35 percent but took 13 more shots than the Terriers.
BU’s offense struggled.
BU entered the fourth quarter trailing by eight, 46-38. The Terriers held Navy scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the frame — an eventual second-chance layup by Mids star sophomore guard Zanai Barnett-Gay ending the drought. That layup stretched Navy’s lead to 10, as BU had yet to score all quarter.
Freshman forward Allison Schwertner netted a pair of free throws moments later, following a Graves timeout. BU’s first fourth-quarter field goal, however, did not come until the 2:07 mark when sophomore guard Aoibhe Gormley drilled a 3. By that point, Navy led 57-46, and the game was practically out of reach. It resembled a first-half drought in which the Terriers did not make a field goal for seven and a half minutes.
BU shot 16 for 50 (32 percent) from the field and never found a consistent offensive flow. BU also shot just 10 for 20 from the free-throw line a game after finishing a lowly 6 for 13 at the stripe against Lafayette.