Childs Drops 17 as Terriers Fall to Dartmouth, 64-44
By: Andrew Mason
The road woes continued for the Boston University women’s basketball team (4-3) in a noon matchup against the Big Green of Dartmouth College (3-4) on Wednesday. While the Terriers remain a winless 0-3 away from Case Gym this season, freshman Riley Childs recorded a career-high 17 points to go with three blocks in her first collegiate start.
Childs was told by head coach Marisa Moseley during the game’s warm-ups that she would be getting the start against the Big Green.
“It added a little stress but I knew I just had to go in and step up like [Moseley] wanted me too,” said Childs.
The standout performance was capped by an impressive 7-11 shooting from the field, an area in which the Medway, Massachusetts native had struggled with since missing multiple games due to shin splints to start off the season.
“This will boost my confidence because I hadn’t had many games yet where I performed as well as I can offensively,” Childs said. “It felt good, but it would have felt better if we could have come up with the win.”
Allowing Dartmouth to go on sizeable runs was the downfall for BU on Wednesday. A pair of 6-0 runs for the Big Green in the first half made the Terriers play catch-up for the entirety of the contest. Later came a 8-0 run in the fourth that all but sealed the win for the hosts.
“[Dartmouth’s] runs came from a lack of communication that we had on defense,” Childs said. “We need to work on [that] and get better at in practice.”
The Terrier’s were without leading scorer, junior Nia Irving (13.4ppg), who sat due to a right hand injury. As a result, freshman-big Chiara Tibbit got her first career start, finishing with seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes of action. Also helping to fill Irving’s role down low was freshman Ashley Seiper (3rebs), who returned to action after missing multiple games with a foot injury.
The scarlet and white’s guards, Lauren Spearman (8pts, 1reb) and Katie Nelson (6pts, 3asts, 2stls), certainly took care of the basketball on Wednesday. While the two combined for just five turnovers in nearly 80 minutes of play, a combined 5-25 from the field was not enough to get the job done.
On the Big Green side, it was senior Isalys Quinones who led the way with 15 points on top of seven rebounds. Junior Paula Lenart contributed a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards, while senior Kealy Brown added 13 points of her own.
The Terriers will need to get comfortable playing on the road soon, as Wednesday presented just the first battle of a four-game road trip.
“Being on the road isn’t easy,” said Childs. “We need to just put in work the next couple of days and bounce back from this loss.”
BU has a full week to get ready before traveling to Amherst to take on the Minutewomen of UMass Amherst (5-4 as of Dec. 5) on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Tip-off from the Mullins Center is set for 7:00 p.m.