Women’s Basketball: Terriers Set for Thursday Matchup Against No. 2 UConn
Featured image by Sierra Jansen
By Austin Rayamajhi
Boston University Women’s Basketball (1-0, 0-0 PL) will travel to Hartford, Conn. on Thursday, Nov. 7 to take on the second ranked UConn Huskies (0-0, 0-0 BE) in a midweek matchup.
BU started their season with a wire to wire victory against their crosstown rivals in Northeastern. The Huskies are opening their season with this matchup against the Terriers.
The matchup between BU and UConn is the first matchup between the two teams in over a decade. The Terriers lost by 58 in their last matchup in 2013 and have not won a game against the Huskies since 1984. The overall record for this series is four wins and eight losses for BU.
UConn is led by first team All-American Paige Bueckers. Bueckers is back for her fifth and final season at UCONN after a season where she led the Huskies to a final four appearance before losing to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The hype around Bueckers is at a high as she was one of two unanimous preseason All-Americans. As one of the biggest names in college sports, there will be pressure on Bueckers and the Huskies to start their season off strong.
Along with Bueckers, UConn also has others with national notoriety. Sophomore Ashlynn Shade, the reigning Big East Freshman of the Year, will look to build off a strong freshman season. The Huskies also brought in grad student Kaitlyn Chen through the transfer portal, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year.
UConn also has multiple top recruits along with Bueckers, such as freshman Sara Strong and grad student Azzi Fudd, although Fudd is not expected to suit up in the matchup against BU.
The Terriers are hopeful their strong start against Northeastern can lead them to a big upset victory against the Huskies. BU has had momentum from even before the season, with Head Coach Melissa Greaves signing a multi-year extension after leading the Terriers to back-to-back 20+ win seasons for the first time since 2011-2013.
BU is led by senior guard Alex Giannaros, who led all scorers with 23 points in the season opener against Northeastern. Giannaros was named to the preseason All-Patriot League team after being named on the All-Patriot League team in the previous year.
Giannaros was also named a captain of the Terriers, along with junior Anastasiia Semenova and sophomore Audrey Eriksen. Semenova is coming off a season where she improved her numbers across the board and will hope to continue the momentum in the contest against UConn. Eriksen was the only Terrier to start all 32 of their games last year.
The Terriers will face the Huskies on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at the XL Center, with the matchup streaming on ESPN+ and SNY.