Women’s Basketball: Terriers Tipoff the Season With a Home Win Over Northeastern
Featured image by Jacob Ireland
By Ryan Abazari
The 50th season of Boston University Women’s basketball tipped off Monday night at The Roof as the Boston University Terriers (1-0, 0-0 PL) took on the Northeastern Huskies (0-1, 0-0 CAA) in the 82nd meeting of the most played rivalry in Terrier program history.
“I think a lot of people were interested to see… how we would be this year, a very different team,” said coach Melissa Graves when speaking about the massive changes the Terrier program had gone through to start this year.
The 2024-25 season opener was set to prove as a litmus test for both programs, as the Terriers try to begin life without last year’s team captain and defending Patriot League MVP and DPOY Caitlin Weimar, and the Huskies look to change their scoring approach after losing their top 3 scorers of the 2023-24 season.
The Terriers jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead over the Huskies and never looked back from that point on, as they held the lead for the entirety of the game and opened it up all the way to a 20 point lead late in the fourth.
When asked about her team’s ability to mesh so well despite it being the season opener, Coach Graves said “You know, we’ve had since the summer to be together, so it’s been quite some time now, and I thought even from the summer, we really started to gel together off the floor really well.”
The Terriers went on several runs during the game mainly fueled by the hot hand of their team captain, senior Alex Giannaros. Giannaros, the lone Terrier to make the preseason All-Patriot League team, shined in her new role as the focal point of this offense finishing 8-12 from the field and 5-8 from deep to tally 23 points and five rebounds.
It was not all smooth sailing for BU, who jumped on Northeastern early in the first and second quarters but seemed to slow down by the end. The Huskies battled back on a 8-0 run to cut a 13 point lead to five right before the half, but a buzzer beater at the end of the half from Sophomore Sisi Bentley meant BU would have a seven point lead to start the 2nd half.
The third quarter is where the Terriers came to play, with Giannaros catching fire scoring ten points in only a four minute stretch. The Terriers ran away with the game as the lead grew from five at the start of the quarter to 18 by the end.
“Our freshmen bring a lot of energy, and I think that kind of gives me a lot more energy as well,” Giannaros said about her extreme comfortability in these moments. “The energy that everybody brings, and has brought since July has really been refreshing for me.”
The fourth quarter strayed from the first three, with BU not making a single basket going 0-7 from the field and gaining their 8 points from the free throw line. Despite this poor play, the Huskies were not able to capitalize, only shooting 6-17, to close out the game. The Huskies did end up cutting the Terrier lead to single digits at one point but it seemed to be just too little, too late as the Terriers ended up claiming the 60-48 win.
When asked about her team’s mindset when closing out the game, sophomore Aoibhe Gormley put it simply saying “just staying confident with that, even when they go on runs, just staying calm.”
Coming up next, the Terriers are on the road to face a basketball powerhouse in the number two ranked UConn Huskies. The game will take place Thursday, November 7th at 7 p.m. with streaming available on Sportsnet New York.