Women’s Basketball: Terriers defeat Bucknell, pick up second consecutive conference win to start season

By Charlie DeMatteo

Boston University Women’s Basketball (7-6, 2-0 PL) defeated the Bucknell Bison (4-9, 0-2 PL) 68-47 on Monday afternoon at Case Gymnasium, giving the Terriers their second consecutive Patriot League win to open the season.

In a game where BU led for all but 30 seconds — but by a slender margin — a strong fourth quarter where the Terriers outscored the Bison 19-6 put the game to bed.

“It was just a great team effort in this one, everyone got a chance to get on the floor and to contribute,” BU Head Coach Melissa Graves said.

Strong defense from both sides in the opening quarter saw a low-scoring affair as BU held a 12-7 advantage after 10 minutes. Junior forward Caitlin Weimar (18 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks) hauled seven rebounds for the Terriers in the first quarter alone as Bucknell struggled to limit her impact on both sides of the ball.

“I thought we started and finished the game really strong defensively,” Graves said.

Freshman forward Sam Crispe started the second quarter with a 3-pointer to put the Terriers up eight before the Bison responded with a three of their own from Remi Sisselman to reduce the Terriers’ advantage to five.

Behind nine points from Weimar and seven from Crispe, the Terriers entered halftime with a 31-22 advantage capped off by a half-court buzzer beater from senior guard Sydney Johnson, who finished the first half with 10 points. 

“When [Weimar] plays like that it’s really hard for us not to be dominant,” Graves said. “She is just such a force inside on both sides of the ball.”

An evenly matched third quarter saw little separate the two teams. The Bison outscored the Terriers by a single point 19-18 as BU entered the fourth quarter up 49-41.

However, a close game quickly became a blowout as the Terriers started the fourth quarter on a 16-2 run to take a commanding 65-43 lead. Behind the Terriers run was scoring from their star players Weimar and Johnson, who finished with 18 points and 15 points, respectively.

The Terriers were also stellar from the free throw line as they went 17-for-18 from the charity stripe.

While the Terriers brought it on offense, their defense was also solid as they held the Bison to just 34% shooting from the field. 

After winning their first two Patriot League matchups of the season, the Terriers will look to make it three in a row when they travel to Easton, Pa to play Lafayette College on Thursday at 6 p.m.