Women’s Basketball: BU drops another conference game on the road against Army
Featured image by Jacob Ireland
By Alexa Podalsky
BU had one timeout, nine seconds, and five points between them and overtime. They struggled to hold a lead the entire night. But, even in the final seconds, it could have been anyone’s game.
Boston University women’s basketball (12-6, 4-3 PL) traveled to West Point, N.Y. on Wednesday night, in hopes of their ninth-straight win against their Patriot League foes, the Army Black Knights (7-10, 4-3 PL). Senior guard Kelsi Mingo converted an easy layup with nine seconds left to cut the lead to three, but Army’s Trinity Hardy drained her second of two free throws seconds later to extend the lead back to four and put the game out of reach. BU fell, 61-57.
“I think we need to find a way to win on the road,” head coach Melissa Graves said. “We gave up 21 [offensive rebounds] and that gave them 16 extra shots, it’s really hard to win when someone else gets 16 more shots than you.”
The Terriers’ defense seemed to lag coming onto the court as the Black Knights quickly took the lead. Army kept BU to 18 points in the first period while they scored 22. For BU, this included 11 points from Mingo and four from senior forward Caitlin Weimar.
Overall, Mingo and junior guard Alex Giannaros led the defense with a combined five steals and four defensive rebounds. They also combined for 26 points, as Mingo scored 14 and Giannaros, 12. Weimar finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought Kelsi [Mingo] shot it well tonight and she’s been playing pretty consistently overall this season,” Graves said. She noted that Giannaros assisted a couple of her 3-point attempts by consistently “getting downhill well.”
BU trailed at the half, 32-30. The Terriers took fewer shots than Army but were more accurate, which resulted in similar field goal percentages.
Army was led by Hardy and freshman forward Kya Smith. Together, they combined for 32 of the Black Knights’ 61 points.
Weimar reached her ninth double-double in 10 games with seconds left in the third quarter as the Terriers tied the game. Weimar ranks first in the Patriot League in scoring and rebounds, and is one of just two players averaging 10 boards per game.
BU held Army to only 20 combined points in the second and third quarters and entered the fourth quarter tied at 42.
Smith made it 58-53 after another trip to the free throw line in the final minute of the game. A comeback for BU seemed possible when Weimar made an and-one layup with 43 seconds left, but she missed the free throw, leaving Army’s lead at three.
On the ensuing possession, Army’s Fiona Hastick drained a mid-range runner with 13 seconds left to extend the lead to two possessions.
BU’s record falls to 4-3 in conference. Defending champions Holy Cross, picked to finish first in the preseason poll, moved to 7-0 on Wednesday. BU, which lost last season’s Patriot League Championship game to the Crusaders and was voted second in the poll, is now three games behind Holy Cross.
The Terriers will return home to play Lafayette College on Saturday at 2 p.m., before traveling to Worcester for a showdown with Holy Cross on Monday. With 12 games left before the Patriot League Tournament, the team hopes to figure out how to win games on the road.
“Nothing’s gonna be easy, nothing’s gonna be given. So, we just got to continue to work hard, get better, and improve as we go through this conference play,” Graves said.