Women’s Basketball: Weimar lifts BU to last-second victory over Army in the Patriot League Quarterfinals

By Henry Dinh-Price

BOSTON – Basketball isn’t about who leads for the majority of the game. It’s about who leads at the end. 

BU had only led for three minutes and 45 seconds, but after getting a crucial stop, it had possession in a tie game with 16.7 seconds left. 

Freshman guard Audrey Ericksen had the ball at the top of the key. She stood waiting for options. Then it came: a back screen by junior guard Alex Giannaros to free up senior forward Caitlin Weimar. Weimar cut to the rim, caught the pass from Ericksen, and finished the layup with 1.5 seconds remaining. 

 

“To have that last play wide open for Cait to get that layup was so huge,” BU head coach Melissa Graves said. “It was a perfect play and we drew it up and they ran it to perfection.” 

It was drawn up by first-year assistant coach Jamie Insel. 

“Coach Jamie does a phenomenal job end of game,” Graves added.

Army had a chance for a rebuttal, but freshman forward Kya Smith’s baseline jumper came up short. 

Despite trailing most of the night, the No. 3 seed Boston University Terriers (19-11, 10-8 PL) took down the No. 6 seed Army Black Knights (12-17, 9-9 PL) in the Patriot League Quarterfinals, 64-62, at Case Gym on Monday. 

“A tough game. They always are when we play Army,” Graves said. “They made things really difficult for us most of the game and I thought we just showed a lot of poise down the stretch.”

Weimar, the Patriot League’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, led the Terriers with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks. 

She did everything early on. 

Early in the second quarter, Army was on an 8-0 run leading 20-12. 

The Terriers had failed to get any dribble penetration. They were either launching contested jumpers as the shot clock wound down or finding Weimar down low. 

In need of a bucket, they found Weimar, who answered with her second and-one layup of the game to cut it back to five. She had 12 of BU’s first 15 points. 

“With the first half, I felt like I wasn’t getting doubled as much. So just recognizing that,” Weimar said. 

But BU coughed up possessions and Army continued to build its lead. Two free throws from second-team all-Patriot League junior guard Trinity Hardy after a foul in transition gave the Black Knights a 30-19 lead with four minutes left in the half. 

“We had turned the ball over, so we were playing in transition a lot and they were able to score easy baskets,” said Graves. 

That’s when BU woke up. Freshman guard Aiobhe Gormley got to the rim twice, sophomore forward Anastasiia Semenova hit a turnaround shot off glass, and then, off of a Gormley steal, Ericksen buried a trailer triple. 

Army freshman guard Camryn Tade responded with a floater to end a scoring drought of over three minutes. But on the final possession of the half, first-team all-Patriot League junior guard Alex Giannaros buried a step-back jumper from the elbow. 

BU ended the half on an 11-2 run and only trailed 32-30 at the break. 

“In the first half, the zone helped us tremendously. I think in the first half they only scored maybe eight points against the zone if you take out transition points,” Graves said. “I thought that adjustment was really good for us going into, you know, the end of the half.”

BU took its first lead since an early 9-8 advantage midway through the third quarter off of six consecutive points from Semenova. Two layups and a pair of free throws gave the Terriers a 38-37 lead. 

Army immediately regained control with an 8-2 run. A right-wing three from freshman wing Fiona Hastick (17 points) had the Black Knights in front, 45-40. 

Weimar would not allow the Terriers to fade quietly. During the third quarter, she scored eight straight for BU to cut the deficit to one. 

However, Hastick responded again. She drove to the rim for an and-one layup, drawing a blocking foul on Weimar with 1.8 seconds left in the quarter. It gave Army a 50-46 lead going into the fourth. 

“We always talk about next-play mentality,” Weimar said. “Just keep on reinforcing that into them.”

A right-wing 3 from Camryn Tade put Army ahead 55-50 with seven minutes to go. 

But Semenova (14 points) responded with a 3 of her own, forcing Army to call timeout. 

Graves on what she told her team: “To keep fighting, you know, and to stay poised.” 

Defense from Gormley sparked a 5-0 Terrier run to take a 58-57 lead. Her hounding defense forced a travel on Army’s sophomore guard Reese Ericson. BU’s Audrey Ericksen buried a corner 3 on the next possession. Then Gormley forced another turnover on Ericson, coming away with a steal. And on the other end, Weimar posted up and hit a go-ahead lefty layup.

“I thought Aiobhe was phenomenal,” Graves said. “We needed that energy and that momentum on the defensive end.”

Smith made a layup on the next possession, Weimar answered with two free throws, and then Hastick buried a contested 3 to give Army a 62-60 lead with 1:56 to play. 

Each time BU took the lead, Army had an instant response. It’s why BU led for under four minutes. 

But the Terriers shut out the Black Knights over the final 1:56. 

“We were able to get enough stops, just enough, to win it,” Graves said. 

Giannaros willed her way to the line with 47.4 seconds remaining and swished both free throws. 

Then after Gormley forced Hastick into a tough midrange jumper that clanked off iron, BU had the final possession to win it. 

Weimar’s layup put BU in front. And then for the first time all night, Army failed to counter. 

“The biggest thing is that stop at the end. It comes down to that,” said Graves. 

With the comeback victory, the Terriers advance to the Patriot League semifinals to face Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y. on Thursday.

BU and Colgate split the season series, but the last time they met, under a week ago on March 6, Colgate dismantled BU, 77-40. The 37-point loss was BU’s worst margin of defeat since 2016, a year it went 3-27. 

“We just have to kind of regroup on that, look at our first game against them, what we did well there and try to execute those things,” Graves said. “I don’t even know if I’ll watch that second game because it was just, it was bad.” 

Everyone not named Caitlin Weimar or Alex Giannaros, BU’s two first-team All-Patriot League selections, shot a combined 3-for-27 in that March 6 loss. For a victory on Thursday, the Terrier stars need to shine, but key contributions from role players will be necessary as well. 

“I think we’ll be able to get a lot of one-on-ones with Cait inside. Trying to get the ball inside will be kind of our go-to like it was tonight,” said Graves. “But overall, you know, I’d like to have more of a showing like we played them the first time.”

FEATURED IMAGE BY ZUZU JANSEN

Share this: