Women’s Basketball: Terriers continue record-breaking season as they take down Lehigh
By Aniya Sumner
Cover Photo Credit: Stevie Potter
Boston University Women’s Basketball (22-6, 17-0 PL) won their 17th game in a row after defeating the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (15-13, 11-6 PL) Saturday night by a score of 78-65.
In a game which they hit another milestone, BU set a program record for conference wins in a season, passing the 2008-09 team’s 16 victory season. If that wasn’t enough, the team also made history becoming just the third team in Patriot League history to capture 17 conference victories.
Junior forward Caitlin Weimar led with 24 points and 15 rebounds, making it her 14th double-double of the season. Senior guard Sydney Johnson followed suit with 12 points, two steals and three rebounds. Sophomore guard Alex Giannaros, senior guard Maggie Pina and freshman forward Sam Crispe each contributed 11 points in the win.
“The biggest thing with these last two [games] especially was just trying to work on us, trying to work on what we wanted to execute offensively and defensively as we move towards the playoffs,” BU Head Coach Melissa Graves said.
Both teams went back-and-forth through the first quarter, with small bursts of 3’s from Giannaros and Johnson. Lehigh struggled to keep the Terriers out of the paint as BU finished the first quarter with 12 of 20 points coming from inside.
Coming into the second quarter with a little bit of fire, BU capitalized on a Lehigh turnover in the first possession of the quarter, with junior guard Sophie Beneventine grabbing the first steal of the night.
The Mountain Hawks were able to pick up the pace later in the second quarter as the team went on a 10-2 run in the last three minutes of the half, cutting into BU’s lead, and ending the first half down 38-32.
“Lehigh’s just a dangerous team,” Graves said. “With the kind of shots they can put up, it can really change the outcome of a game.”
Lehigh started the second half with the same fire they ended the second quarter with, managing a 8-0 run in less than three minutes, forcing a BU timeout.
The Terriers went on a run of their own, stretching the lead with a 14-0 run that forced Lehigh into two timeouts. Two 3-pointers from Pina and Crispe in the last minute of the quarter put another nail in the coffin as the Terriers ended the third with a 60-44 lead.
“They had a big run, we had to make some adjustments, especially to the defensive side, and then made a run of our own,” Graves said. “I’m just really proud of how we handled that.”
Connecting with Weimar in the paint, Beneventine played a significant role in the influx of paint points, dishing a career-high seven assists in the game.
Frustrated with the score, Lehigh came out the gate with three fouls in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. BU followed up with an 11-4 run, six of those points coming from two made 3’s by Giannaros, her second and third of the night.
The Mountain Hawks refused to give BU the easy win as the team went on an impressive 17-5 run, with 15 of 17 points coming from beyond the arc.
The run would prove to be not enough though as a last-minute layup from freshman forward Anastasiia Semenova in the last 30 seconds put the game to bed and gave BU the victory.
The Terriers look to end their regular season on a perfect note as they travel to Worcester, Massachusetts to take on Holy Cross in a Turnpike trophy match set for Wednesday at 7 p.m.