Women’s Basketball: BU advances past Army in Patriot League Quarterfinals

By Michael Wax

The Boston University Terriers (17-13, 13-6 PL) defeated the six-seed Army Black Knights (16-13, 10-9 PL) 80–74 on Monday night to punch their ticket to the Patriot League semifinals.

Head coach Melissa Graves was pleased with the team’s overall performance and credited its balanced offensive attack as the key to victory.

“We had two assists last game, which is not where we want to be as a team,” Graves said. “We talked about what sharing the basketball looked like, and I thought today, we responded really well with 18 assists and scoring 80 points.”

BU started the game by going 6-of-7 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, led by junior guard Liz Shean. Shean ended with 15 points and shot 5-of-11, 45.5%, from deep.

“If Alex [Giannaros] and Sydney [Johnson] are the posts and do all the work to get the ball to me or whoever, we have to do that play justice,” Shean said.

BU led by 17 with 7:53 left in the second quarter, but Army used some hot shooting of its own to go on a 25-8 run and eventually take the lead before the quarter ended. 

Sophomore center Caitlin Weimar was outstanding for BU, compiling 21 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a block. 

“I just mainly focused on taking my time in the post and looking to see if the double is coming,” Weimar said.

Army senior Alisa Fallon scored a career-high 37 points, the most points in a game by a Black Knight since Kelsey Minato scored 37 against Lafayette on December 31, 2014. Despite the massive scoring numbers, Graves felt the Terriers adjusted well to the hot-shooting guard. 

“I thought she did a tremendous job. It was very, very hard to guard her today,” Graves said. “Our adjustment at the half was just to face guard her and not have any help responsibilities off of her. Then late in the fourth we went to switching everything when they were trying to get some threes off and I thought we did a really good job contesting.”

The second half was much more closely contested than the first, with multiple lead changes and both teams going on extended runs. Ultimately, BU’s bench gave the Terriers the extra push they needed to survive and advance. 

“It’s been really nice to have everybody back,” said Graves. “To have 19 points from our bench is really, really huge.”

BU advances to the Patriot League semifinals for the second consecutive year and will face #2 American University Thursday on the road.