Women’s Basketball: Terriers climb past Northern Colorado

Featured image by Jacob Ireland

By James Noyes

Boston University women’s basketball (5-1) beat the University of Northern Colorado Bears (2-3) 63-52 on Sunday in Greeley, Colorado. BU picked up their second win in a row, as senior forward Caitlin Weimar scored a team-high 14 points, to go with seven rebounds and three blocks, as she dominated the paint all night.

The Terriers’ size was too much to overcome for Northern Colorado; 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Anete Adler also posted 13 points, with 7 rebounds of her own. Weimar and Adler held star UNC forward Delaynie Byrne — who came in averaging 19 points per game — to a quiet 3-for-13 shooting night.

“Where I think we did a great job was Delaynie Byrne, their best player,” BU head coach Melissa Graves said. “We kept her to 9 (points), and a lot of that was Cait. I think Cait’s length really bothered her. Anete had a few possessions on her, she blocked her shot at one point. I thought collectively our posts did a good job of guarding her.”

While the Terriers were able to limit UNC’s post-play, they had trouble limiting their own mistakes. BU turned the ball over 23 times, leading to 18 points for the Bears, including four in the last three minutes of the game. However, Graves reminded fans that this inexperienced Terriers squad is only six games into the season. BU’s roster has six freshmen and two transfers.

Graves explained: “We’re very new. It’s going to be something that we’re continuing to grow, and hopefully we’re going to be better once we get to conference (play).”

The Terriers shot the ball well throughout the game, finishing with a 47.9% field-goal percentage. BU shot 12-for-14 from the free throw line as Northern Colorado got into foul trouble early on. 

The Terriers would have pulled away sooner than they did if not for the performance of UNC senior Hannah Simental. 

Simental finished with a game-high 26 points on 8-for-16 shooting, including six 3-pointers. 

“She had a phenomenal game,” Graves said. “She got a lot of her shots off in transition. We didn’t limit her attempts.”

But despite Simental’s efforts, the Terriers would not be stopped. Eight BU players finished with four or more points, supplied by 17 points off the bench, compared to just 4 from Northern Colorado. 

BU will hope to extend their win streak when they travel to the University of Colorado Boulder to face the Buffaloes, the third-ranked team in the nation, on Tuesday at 8 p.m.