Women’s Basketball: Terriers fall to 1-1 after loss to Princeton

By Michael Wax

After a convincing win on Tuesday, Boston University women’s basketball suffered its first loss of the 2021-22 season on Sunday afternoon, falling to Princeton 69-40.

“We just gotta learn from this, regroup, and get ready for the next one,” said Head Coach Melissa Graves.

Graves thought the team mostly beat themselves, as BU put up an uncharacteristic 27 turnovers and was outscored 12-4 on second-chance opportunities. 

“We struggled with our composure, we didn’t take the best shots we could’ve taken,” Graves said. “We beat ourselves.”

Princeton’s 69 points were the most that BU has allowed in a single regular-season game since January 25, 2020, when the Terriers gave up 70 points to Holy Cross in an overtime victory.

“I thought we just struggled with our composure and struggled to run certain things,” Graves said. “We gave them 31 points off of our turnovers.”

Graves’ request for the next game was a cut and dry one: Take care of the basketball.

“I thought UMass Lowell kind of prepared us because they’re a very good pressure team and we were able to execute against them, but we have to regroup,” Graves said.

Princeton junior Julia Cunningham — who recorded the first double-double of her collegiate career during the game — posed a challenge for the Terriers, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. 

“She is a difficult kid to defend,” Graves said. “She can shoot the three, she can go to the basket. We knew that coming in. She had a good game today.”

On the other side, Emily Esposito led the Terriers with 11 points, while Riley Childs hauled down eight rebounds for BU. Graves was impressed with the latter, particularly her rebounding ability and leadership throughout the tough game.

“That’s a role she’s continued to embrace, and she does a really good job with it,” Graves said. ”We’ve been challenging her in practice to continue to do that, and I thought she did a great job today.”

Sydney Johnson followed up a disappointing first half of shooting by leading the Terriers in points in the second half. Graves attributed that change in play to the way the team as a whole responded during the third and fourth periods.

“A big piece of it was just for our guards to keep the composure, run the offense, and use two sides of the floor,” Graves said. “I thought she did a much better job of that in the second half.”

Late in the fourth quarter, freshman Alex Giannaros collided with Princeton junior Grace Stone and was removed from the game as a precaution. However, Graves said that Giannaros was alright.

“We just wanted to make sure, and also give Sophie [Beneventine] another opportunity,” said Graves. “Soph had over 30 people at the game today.”

BU will look to bounce back on Wednesday at 6 pm against Boston College.