Women’s Basketball: Terriers unable to complete late-game comeback against Lafayette, fall 58-52

By Hannah Yoshinaga 

BU women’s basketball fell in its second consecutive close loss Wednesday, dropping 58-52 to Lafayette on the road.

The defeat moves the Terriers (15-12, 11-5 PL) out of first place, tying them with Bucknell and American for the second-best record behind top-seeded Holy Cross. The Leopards (10-16, 6-10 PL) sit in seventh.

BU held the lead for less than two minutes of the game and spent much of the contest playing catch-up.

BU attempted to make a late-game comeback against Lafayette after getting down by 13 points with less than seven minutes remaining. The Terriers reduced the deficit to four points with just over a minute left but were unable to level the score.

Free-throw shooting was an issue for BU — namely, that they struggled to get to the line and couldn’t convert when they got there. The Terriers made only one of six free-throw attempts all game long. Lafayette’s success at the charity stripe, where the Leopards went 19-for-23, hurt BU even more.

The Terriers’ failure to generate free points meant that they could not take advantage of an otherwise mediocre night from the Leopards on the offensive end, where they shot just 9.1% from deep.

Junior guard Sydney Johnson finished with a team-leading 16 points on 7-of-20 shooting. Junior forward Maren Durant was the only other BU player to finish in double-digits, posting 10 points.

The Terriers struggled out of the gate to begin the game, shooting just 28.6% from the floor and trailing by as many as seven points during the first quarter.

BU better kept pace with Lafayette in the second, even tying the score at 15-15 with seven minutes remaining in the half. However, a quick three put the Leopards back in front, and they entered the break with a four-point edge.

The Terriers got off to another slow start to begin the second half and went 1-for-5 to open the third period. Lafayette increased its lead to as high as 10 points before sophomore forward Caitlin Weimar made back-to-back layups to bring the score to 41-35 entering the fourth.

Despite BU cutting the Leopards’ lead to four points in the final minutes, fouls and missed free-throws prevented the Terriers from tying the score or taking a lead.

Lafayette guard Makayla Andrews finished with a game-leading 18 points, along with eight rebounds, two assists and a block.

The Terriers return to Case Gym on Saturday at 6 p.m. to face Bucknell in a Senior Day matchup.