Women’s Basketball: BU downed in disappointing 61-52 loss to Bucknell
Featured image by Jessica Lam
By Brian Foisy
What started as a game where the Terriers seemed to be playing an outmatched opponent ended as the team’s most disappointing loss of the season.
Boston University women’s basketball (11-5, 3-2 PL) played catch up for the entirety of Wednesday night’s game on the road against the Bucknell University Bison (4-12, 1-4 PL) and never found their footing, losing 61-52.
“Bucknell did a good job, they were very physical, they were trying to deny our reversals, they were locked in on their game plan against us,” head coach Melissa Graves said following the loss.
The Terriers’ missed 3-pointers, as well as poor execution from the free throw line, were what did them in against an opponent in Bucknell who was fighting for their first conference win of the season. The Bison entered the contest on a five-game skid and bottom of the Patriot League standings.
“Everybody missed some easy shots, we missed a lot of layups all around, through the whole lineup, I think it was just obviously an off night for us to shoot 31%,” Graves said.
BU’s 31 percent shooting percentage was by far its lowest of the season.
The team shot a combined 11-for-20 from the line in the game, compared to the 13-for-18 clip for Bucknell. BU had no trouble getting to the stripe, but had consistent trouble seizing those easy points.
“This is two games in a row now where we haven’t shot to our potential from the line, that’s something we continued to work on,” Graves said.
Bucknell led for much of the first half, withstanding runs by the Terriers for most of the second quarter and keeping their lead around two scores.
Emma Theodorsson was the difference maker for the Bison in the first half, leading all scorers with 19 points. The sophomore hit two 3-pointers in the first two quarters to go along with a 55 percent shooting percentage from beyond the arc. Theodorsson finished the game with a career-high 31 points.
On the other side, the Terriers struggled shooting the ball, going 3-for-11 from 3 in the first half. BU also couldn’t make much of their opportunities at the line either, shooting 8-for-14.
The Bison had an 18-12 lead two minutes into the second quarter, their largest of the first half. The Terriers came back with a run of their own, tying it up after a 6-2 run at 6:51 of the second quarter.
Missed free throws by senior forward Caitlin Weimar and a 3 from Theodorsson allowed Bucknell to jump out to another five point lead with less than five minutes left in the first half.
Despite the great scoring start from the Bison to start the first half, the Terriers were able to wrestle back the lead after a few lead changes to end the second quarter.
A steal by junior guard Alex Giannaros in the final 30 seconds and two made free throws from the previously struggling Weimar sealed the deal for the Terriers to finish the second half up three points, heading to the locker room leading 33-30.
The third offered another back and forth quarter of play with 12 lead changes. The play of Theodorsson, who reached her career high with 31 points, continued to burn the Terriers as the sophomore stood in the way of the Terriers finding any footing.
“I did not expect her to have 31, we adjusted to her, we went over on screens, we tried to take her out and face guard her, but, she had a phenomenal game,” Graves said.
Neither team led by more than four points until the final minute of the quarter, when the Terriers grabbed their largest of the game.
From the Giannaros 3-pointer that gave BU its four-point lead, the Bison went on a 12-7 run to grab a four point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
It took more than four minutes from there for either team to get points on the board, when Theodorsson made two free throws, putting Bucknell up by six. The Bison closed the game on an 11-3 run in the final minutes of the quarter, putting a game that had been mainly back and forth out of reach for the Terriers.
“We barely made any shots that quarter, I think that was part of it. We had some turnovers, some offensive fouls that went the other way,” Graves said, “those lapses I think obviously really hurt us,” she continued.
The Terriers will next face off against Colgate (11-5, 4-1 PL) at home on Saturday at 2 p.m. as they continue conference play. The team will need to shake off the simple lapses and mistakes that sunk them in Wednesday’s game for a chance to survive Patriot League play against more sophisticated opponents.