Women’s Basketball: Giannaros Nets 1,000th Point as Terriers Fall to UNH

Featured image by Sierra Jansen

By James Noyes

Boston University Women’s Basketball (1-2, 0-0 PL) fell to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (4-1, 0-0 AEC) 69-60 in Durham on Saturday night. BU trailed 36-19 after the first half, but came all the way back in the third quarter to tie the game at 41-41. Alex Giannaros, the Terriers’ senior guard and leading scorer, notched her 1,000th career point for BU in the fourth quarter of the loss. 

For the third game in a row, the Terriers came out slow on offense. They scored only 12 points in the first quarter, on 5-10 shooting. One of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation, BU only attempted two in the opening quarter. The moment any potential Terrier shooter got the ball in their hands, multiple UNH defenders swarmed them in an attempt to prohibit a shot. 

It was the Wildcats who looked like the dominant team from deep on Saturday; they didn’t attempt a shot inside the arc until the second quarter, and they drilled a whopping six 3-pointers in the first frame, for 18 points. Despite BU’s athletic lineup, the Wildcats ball movement resulted in a litany of open shots from 3-point range:

“We were losing people on slips to the basket, and we were switching one through four, so that shouldn’t have been happening,” BU Head Coach Melissa Graves said. “We just needed to cause more disruption.”

The Terriers followed up their poor offensive first quarter with an ineffectual second; they attempted five more 3-pointers in the second quarter, but were only able to make two of them. They shot 2-11 overall in the quarter amid the Wildcats’ defensive frenzy, and scored just seven points.

New Hampshire, on the other hand, doubled down on their commanding first quarter offense. They scored another 18 points in the second, most of them coming from inside. The Terriers got out-rebounded 17-4 in the quarter, including seven UNH offensive rebounds to BU’s zero. At the half, UNH led 36-19.

After halftime, the Terriers looked like a team reborn. A 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half, driven by five quick points from sophomore guard Aiobhe Gormley, cut the deficit to ten. 

Wildcats’ sophomore guard Eva DeChent, who led the game in scoring with 34 points, layed the ball up in a futile attempt to stop the momentum before the Terriers’ other sophomore guard, Audrey Erickson, nailed a 3-pointer to chop the UNH lead to nine. 

But the real momentum switch occurred on the other side of the ball for BU; a strong full-court press after the break characterized the Terriers defense the rest of the way. 

“The press was the biggest part,” of the team’s defensive adjustments after halftime, Graves said, but the Terriers also employed a zone defense that suffocated the Wildcats’ ball movement.

BU’s halftime adjustments worked. New Hampshire’s offense was suddenly crippled; they went 0-6 from 3-point range in the third quarter, after going 8-12 in the first half. They shot just 2-14 from the field, and scored only seven points in the quarter. The script had completely flipped.

Adler, who made her season debut for the Terriers on Saturday, made the layup to cut the New Hampshire lead to five points. Bentley hit another pair of free throws at the 3:49 mark to make it a 38-35 game. 

After a BU foul, the Wildcats notched another point at the free throw line before Adler’s number was called again. This time, she caught the ball in the same spot but simply elevated over the smaller UNH defender for a sweet mid-range jumper, and suddenly the Terriers were only down by two.

“She shot the ball at a high clip, even with being tired,” Graves said about Adler. “This is a very young team. I start two freshmen, two sophomores, so with her presence in the post, and I have all freshman post players, it’s really good for us.”

Both teams went back and forth to open the fourth quarter, with DeChent hitting yet another 3-pointer and Bentley connecting with Adler again for an inside basket. On the next Terrier possession, it was Adler who found the cutting Bentley for another chemistry-laden score.

DeChent got fouled and hit both of her free throws to widen the Wildcats lead to 51-45. She also unknowingly set up the moment of the night for BU. Senior Alex Gianarros, the Terriers’ point guard and leading scorer, entered Saturday’s game sitting at 999 total points scored in the BU red and white.

Giannaros, who was named to the preseason All Patriot League team, was having a quiet game by her standards entering the fourth quarter as she missed her only shot. Never one to stay cold for too long, Giannaros was due for a bucket when she got the ball down six points in the fourth. In one fluid motion, she stepped into the shot, elevated, and drained the 3-pointer to cut the deficit to three, and secure her 1,000th point as a Terrier. 

The bench erupted in support of their veteran, and when freshman forward Allison Schwertener converted an and-one to tie the game for BU, it seemed as though the energy had been sucked out of Lundholm Gymnasium entirely.

But, despite coming back from a 17-point first half deficit to tie the game, the Terriers never could take the lead. Wildcat phenom Eva DeChent scored five quick points to retake it, and New Hampshire didn’t look back. UNH won 69-60, in a game marked by shifting momentum and a lead that was just out of reach.

Next, the Terriers will begin a three-game homestand on Thursday when they take on Maine at 6 p.m. ET in Case Gym in Boston. The game will be broadcast live on WTBU and ESPN+.