Instant takeways from BU women's basketball's 62-55 victory at UMass Lowell
The Terriers shook off an incompetent performance in the first half to rally to victory — once again.
LOWELL, Mass. — Nothing has shaken this Boston University women’s basketball team so far this season, so why would Thursday’s miserable first half have been any different?
After perhaps its worst performance of the year on Tuesday in a blowout loss to UAlbany, BU made the short trip up to UMass Lowell for a matchup with the River Hawks on Thursday night and was a comedy of errors in the opening 20 minutes.
Then the Terriers promptly shook off whatever it was that got into them and rallied to a 62-55 victory at Costello Athletic Center.
Here are three takeaways from the victory:
BU did it again.
Slow starts have been as reliable as the sunrise for BU so far this season; but then, at the same time, so has BU’s eventual fight back.
It was the story in a road loss to No. 2 UConn on No. 7, in a road loss to New Hampshire 10 days after that, in a home win over Maine and a road win over Le Moyne. BU is a young, inexperienced team; it knew warts would come early and often. But it has shown the ability to simply not care about them, immediately putting poor showings in the waste basket of history time and time again.
Consider senior guard Alex Giannaros. On Thursday, the captain (and BU’s leading-scorer) started 3 of 20 from the field, one of the worst shooting performances of her 1,000-plus-point career. She looked befuddled at some of her misses.
But when the Terriers needed her, leading by two with just over a minute to play and the entire arena shouting “defense,” Giannaros put her head down, worked her way to the cup and sunk the dagger with a tough finish in traffic.
BU collapsed on offense…then totally revived itself.
Save for the loss to UConn, BU scored its fewest points of the season Tuesday against UAlbany. Head coach Melissa Graves said the Terriers “just weren’t getting into offense.”
“I hope this was more of a fluke,” she added. “We have Lowell on Thursday, and I hope that’s a good opportunity for us to bounce back.”
Yeah. It didn’t turn out that way… through two quarters.
After scoring a tied-season-low six points in the second quarter on Tuesday, BU only scored eight in the second frame on Thursday and, at one point, surrendered a 12-0 UML run over seven minutes. It was the peak of an incompetent first-half performance on offense — BU struggled to finish at the rim, couldn’t establish the post and barely created open looks from downtown. The Terriers shot 9 of 27 from the field in the first half, scored only 22 points and committed 11 turnovers.
Then, like it was nothing, BU scored on its first seven possessions of the third quarter.
Much of it powered by BU’s relentless presence on the offensive glass — a welcome change, to say the least — the Terriers scored 40 points in the second half. BU’s 15 total offensive rebounds allowed it to survive an uncharacteristic performance from its best player. Giannaros missed a whopping 17 shots, nine of them 3-pointers, but the Terriers rebounded a ton of those misses to score, anyway.
Freshman forward Allison Schwertner (13 points) led BU in scoring while adding 12 rebounds. It was the first double-double of her career.
In Aoibhe Gormley’s absence, SiSi Bentley and Bella McLaughlin stepped up.
Editor’s note: McLaughlin left the game late in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. Her status is not immediately clear.
Sophomore guard Gormley, one of BU’s best returning players, missed her first game of the year with what the team called an “upper body” injury. Accordingly, sophomore guard McLaughlin — who had started the previous five games alongside Gormley — assumed the brunt of the point guard duties; while sophomore forward Bentley made her first career start at the ‘4’ spot.
McLaughlin was excellent on Thursday. Gormley is BU’s fastest player, but even without her, Graves demanded her team to push the pace on offense early. McLaughlin obliged… and did it well. She made several critical effort plays, too; she stole both of UML’s sideline inbounds passes to start the second and third quarters, finishing with easy layups in transition.
“On the defensive end,” senior captain Alex Giannaros said a couple weeks ago, “she’s a menace.”
Meanwhile, Bentley was relentless on the glass — something BU needs dearly — finishing with seven rebounds, many of them offensive. In the third quarter, it felt like she corralled 100.
(Also, sophomore wing Audrey Ericksen deserves a mention, too: she collected six rebounds, several of them critical as BU rallied in the second half.)
Bentley was everywhere on the offensive boards, and it kept BU somewhat afloat on an otherwise ice-cold shooting night. She added five points, an assist and a steal.