Women’s Basketball: BU rolls past Emmanuel for second-straight win
Featured image by Claire Guest
By Brendan Galvin
It has been a few quiet nights on Boston University’s campus as students prepare for final exams. Still, it was anything but quiet on Tuesday night in Case Gymnasium as the Boston University women’s basketball team erupted offensively in their 80-47 win over DIII Emmanuel College.
The Terriers (7-3) benefited from scoring contributions from 10 out of 11 players, with senior forward Caitlin Weimar continuing to lead the charge, and junior guard Alex Giannaros and sophomore forward Anastasiia Semenova following up.
Weimar totaled 20 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists, while Giannaros scored 16 points, hauled in six rebounds, and dished out two assists.
Semenova, who continued to step up in the absence of sophomore forward Anete Adler, scored a career-high 16 points and brought in six rebounds in her first career start.
“I’m just really grateful for this opportunity to start for the first time in my collegiate career,” Semenova said. “As [BU head coach Melissa Graves] mentioned, we just need people to step up and I’m more than happy to take on that role and execute.”
Semenova, who only averages 6.7 points and four rebounds per game, has continued to shine when her name’s been called. However, she knows there’s still more work to be done.
To continue improving, she hopes to “just focus on the little details in practice,” she said. “We have our practice sheets before every practice where we write our goals for the day and thoughts from last practice and that helps me focus on what I need to improve every time to get better.”
In addition to Semenova, Weimar, and Giannaros, the Terriers saw contributions from players who have yet to see the floor for more than 10 total minutes this season.
Freshman guards Emelia O’Gilvie and Aina Grane Torres, and junior guard Natalie Jasper all scored their first collegiate baskets.
“Anyone that’s coming off the bench knows to be ready when their name is called and I thought they did a really good job of being prepared and stepping up when they needed to,” Graves said.
The Terriers led 42-25 at the half, but quickly went on a 16-0 run to open the second half, putting the game out of reach.
The wire-to-wire win for the Terriers may have seemed like an unfair game in favor of BU, but the team is still preparing for their first Patriot League action in less than three weeks.
“I thought this was a good game for us to prepare for Northeastern where everyone gets a chance to play and get that experience under their belts a little bit,” Graves said. “I thought it was a good opportunity to rest some bodies like [Weimar], who plays almost 40 minutes a game, she got to rest a little bit more, and we got to have a bigger rotation.”
For an inexperienced BU team, the non conference schedule was a chance to acclimate to the collegiate atmosphere and prepare to take on conference opponents.
“We just needed more time to get to play together and get to know each other on the floor,” Graves added. “I think we’re gelling together well on both ends, but especially on the offensive end.”
For a team averaging 62 points per game scoring and allowing 59 defensively, conference games will come down to late-game execution.
BU will have a final opportunity to work on their game plan on December 22 at Northeastern before hosting Navy in their conference opener on January 3.