Women’s Basketball: Terriers Fall in Final Home Game of the Year Against UAlbany
Featured image by Jackson Shahinfar
By Aniya Sumner
Boston University Women’s Basketball (4-4, 0-0 PL) took their second loss at home against former America East rivals UAlbany (8-1, 0-0 AE) on Tuesday night, with a rather jarring score of 72-36.
“I thought we had a pretty decent first quarter to start–which we talked about wanting to do–but after that, it’s kind of all downhill,” Head Coach Melissa Graves said.
The two teams seemingly shared a similar vision for how they wanted to start the game, as both stepped out with a high-court press that intensified the single-digit exchanges between the two throughout the quarter.
Despite an early 7-0 run from the Terriers, it was UAlbany’s offensive rebounding that began to shift the tempo of the game. The Great Danes ended the first quarter with the lead at 18-13, and as Graves mentioned, it was mostly downhill from there.
The Great Danes scored 18 points in the second quarter, ten of which was off turnovers from the Terriers, who couldn’t quite connect at the basket either, scoring only 6 points in the quarter and ending the half at 36-19.
“We had three assists today to 20 turnovers, which is…is just a crazy ratio,” Graves said. “I think their pressure affected us a little bit, and it’s just hard when multiple people don’t show up instead of, you know, one or two [who] have a bad game.”
Much of the second half mimicked the second quarter with UAlbany out-rebounding and out-scoring the Terriers on second-chance plays.
The Great Danes shot 64.3% from the field in the third quarter, stretching the lead with an early 8-0 run, closing out the quarter with a score of 57-29.
Perhaps a lot less enthusiastic about the outcome of the game, the Terriers had their second worst quarter in the fourth, shooting three for 11 from the field and 0-7 from behind the arc, closing out the quarter with only seven points.
“I think when we weren’t making shots–because we had some open looks–but when we weren’t making those shots, it affected our ability to defend too, like we just felt deflated,” Graves explained.
Despite the deflation, senior guard Alex Giannaros was able to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel for the Terriers, leading the team with 14 points, while sophomore guard Bella McLaughlin aided by crashing the boards, rallying seven points and six rebounds.
The Great Danes took a lot more from the game as Kaci Donovan earned a career-high 30 points and joined the 1000-point club, while Kayla Cooper hit 1500 career points after a 15-point 10-rebound double-double in the game.
“I think that’s a phenomenal team, and it’s a veteran team, and they’re crazy efficient offensively,” Graves said. “I thought, you know, and my hope was that we were going to be better and more efficient offensively, which we weren’t today, unfortunately.”
The Terriers will have a chance to brush this one off as they head to UMass Lowell on Thursday, Dec. 21 in the start of their three-game stretch away.
Tip off is set for 6 p.m. with streaming services available on ESPN+.