Instant takeaways from BU women's basketball's 72-68 loss to Loyola Maryland
Poor rebounding and defense doomed the Terriers, a game after their best win of the season.
BOSTON — The Boston University women’s basketball team entered Saturday’s matchup at Case Gym coming off its best win of the season, a 52-49 victory over two-time defending Patriot League champion Holy Cross.
Hosting Loyola Maryland presented a great opportunity for the Terriers to begin a winning streak.
But BU (8-13, 2-8 PL) failed to defend and fell, 72-68, to the Greyhounds (8-13, 2-8 PL).
Outside of Aoibhe Gormley and SiSi Bentley, BU’s defense was bad.
BU operated in a three-quarter-court press that sophomores Aoibhe Gormley and SiSi Bentley defended well in. Gormley was at the top of the press and earned numerous deflections. Bentley joined the party on traps and came away with four steals. Gormley had two.
The full-court press helped contribute to 19 Loyola Maryland turnovers.
Outside of Gormley and Bentley, however, BU looked mostly lost on the defensive end.
Loyola Maryland was averaging just 53.4 points per game in conference play entering Saturday’s matchup – second-worst in the Patriot League and only ahead of one-win American. The Greyhounds also entered with the conference’s third-worst field goal percentage (39.9 percent) and worst 3-point percentage (24.3).
But the Terriers allowed 71 points on 59 percent shooting and 7 of 10 from 3.
In the second quarter, BU failed to get a defensive stop for close to seven minutes. When it did force missed field goals, the Greyhounds swooped in for offensive rebounds and cashed in on the second chance.
During the first quarter, LMD senior forward Laura Salmeron drove past sophomore Ines Monteagudo. Monteagudo, a step behind, fouled Salmeron on the layup. BU head coach Melissa Graves yelled out “TAKE AWAY MIDDLE!” to her team. On the very next possession, BU was beaten middle by Salmeron again. This time Salmeron made an extra pass in the lane to senior Koi Sims, who was left wide open for a layup.
Salmeron finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting and 4 for 5 from deep. She added the dagger on a right-handed floater with 17.4 seconds remaining to give LMD a five-point lead.
BU had a season-low 18 rebounds.
Low rebounding numbers and poor defense can be almost synonymous. Still, even with BU’s defensive struggles, it had a clear size advantage over the Greyhounds and failed to show it on the offensive glass.
The Terriers finished with just 18 rebounds and were outrebounded 30-18.
BU’s previous season-low in rebounds was 19 against Bucknell a week ago. Graves blamed that loss almost solely on a poor defensive performance. It was much of the same, against a much worse opponent and at home, on Saturday.
Against smaller defenders, Allison Schwertner thrived down low.
6-foot-3 freshman Allison Schwertner had a clear size advantage over Loyola Maryland’s ‘bigs.’ She used it to her advantage.
LMD’s tallest player is 6-foot-2 sophomore Lily Bottomley. She played sparingly. LMD’s two starting forwards are both 5-foot-11.
When BU got the ball to Schwertner, the 5-foot-11 forwards had no answer. Schwertner had 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting in the first half. She finished with a team-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Schwertner also took five trips to the free-throw line as Greyhound defenders could do nothing but foul.