Women’s Basketball: Second-half comeback gives Terriers edge over Army

By Hannah Yoshinaga 

Boston University women’s basketball came back from a slow start Wednesday against Army West Point, outscoring the Black Knights by double-digits in the third and fourth quarters to come away with a 69-56 win.

The victory was the Terriers’ (14-9, 10-2 PL) fourth-straight defeat of Army (12-10, 6-6 PL) dating back to last season.

Junior guard Liz Shean topped all scorers with 18 points in just her third career start. Sophomore center Caitlin Weimar put up another efficient performance with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 14 rebounds, while junior guard Sydney Johnson finished with 16 points and a team-leading four assists.

Freshman guard Alex Giannaros was the fourth BU athlete to reach double-digits, recording 12 points despite struggling from the field and going 4-for-11.

Army’s shooters were unable to keep pace with BU, shooting only 27.3% from deep compared to 42.1% from Terrier scorers. The Black Knights had difficulty converting on free throws as well and made 3-of-11 on the evening.

Army could not keep up with BU on the boards either. The Terriers led the Black Knights 41-32 in rebounding and recorded eight blocks, compared to zero from Army.

The Terriers went head-to-head with the Black Knights in the first quarter and traded baskets throughout the period, ending with an 18-19 deficit.

BU’s offense went cold in the second quarter, with its three leading shooters combining to score only once — a stepback three from Shean midway through the period. Giannaros was the only Terrier who managed to score during the quarter, including a three-pointer with 30 seconds remaining that ended a BU scoreless streak more than four minutes long.

However, the script flipped in the third and Army managed just nine points. The Black Knights failed to score for nearly five minutes, and only three players got on the board during the quarter.

While Army’s offense struggled, the Terriers got back on track to outscore the Black Knights 43-22 during the half. Johnson recorded 13 of her 16 points in the second half, and Weimar posted nine.

Though the Black Knights’ Sam McNaughton ended with 19 points on 9-of-20 shooting, the Terriers were able to effectively limit Alisa Fallon, who leads all Army scorers this season with an average of 12.6 points per game. Fallon went 4-of-12 from the floor in 38 minutes to score nine points.

BU travels to American on Saturday to face the fourth-place Eagles at 2 p.m.