Women’s Basketball: Terriers Advance to Patriot League Semifinals with win over Loyola Maryland
By Charlie DeMatteo
Cover Photo Credit: Stevie Potter
Boston University Women’s Basketball (22-7, 17-1 PL) defeated the Loyola Maryland Greyhounds (10-20, 4-14 PL) 66-52 on Monday night at Case Gym in Boston as the Terriers advanced to the Semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament.
Without Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Caitlin Weimar, who was out with an ankle injury, the Terriers battled through a slow first half to eliminate the Greyhounds as they remain undefeated in conference play at home this season.
“It was just a really gritty win,” BU Head Coach Melissa Graves said. “We made some really good adjustments in the second half defensively, and I thought that was what won us the game.”
Without the presence of Weimar down low, the Terriers were left with open looks from beyond the arc all night but started slowly. After the first quarter, BU was shooting just 3-for-11 from 3-point range, and 5-for-17 from the field.
“I thought we just missed some shots we usually make in the first half and in the second half we shot the ball much better,” Graves said.
Sophomore guard Lauren Davenport gave the Terriers some momentum after back-to-back 3’s with 3:48 remaining in the second quarter caused Loyola to take a timeout.
Senior forward Maren Durant also came up big for the Terriers, having to take on an even bigger role down low without Weimar. Durant finished with 12 points to go along with 15 rebounds and six blocks in a monster performance.
“Obviously Caitlin is a huge part of our team, but when she needs time to recover all of us are more than capable of stepping up,” Durant said.
With BU struggling a bit from beyond the arc and Loyola hitting some tough shots, the Terriers entered halftime up just one by a score of 27-26.
The Greyhounds came out strong in the second half and took a 34-28 lead. However, four straight 3-pointers by sophomore guard Alex Giannaros and one more deep ball from junior guard Sophie Beneventine put BU up 10, as Case Gym erupted.
“We just had that mentality we weren’t going to stop [shooting],” Giannaros said. “Even in the second half after the first half that we had, we just kept shooting and eventually they had to fall.”
Giannaros ended with 18, all coming from behind the arc. The Terriers shot 12-for-29 from deep against the Greyhounds and got hot after a slow start to put Loyola away.
Taleah Dixon and Devyne Newman led Loyola with 11 points each, but Graves was pleased with how her team defended all game.
“We really locked in on Lex Therien, who is a tremendous player, and I thought we did a good job on Dixon in the second half,” Graves said.
Senior guard Sydney Johnson put the icing on the cake for BU with 8:23 to go in the fourth with an acrobatic And-1 to get the fans on their feet. Johnson’s layup put BU up 14 and the Terriers didn’t look back from there, going up by as much as 20.
BU will look to advance to the Patriot League Championship Game when they face Army West Point at home in the Semifinals on Thursday at 6 p.m.