Women’s Basketball: Terriers Head to Connecticut to face the University of New Haven

Featured image by Jackson Shahinfar

By Celine Cheung

Boston University’s Women’s Basketball (1-2, 0-0 PL) will face the University of New Haven this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in West Haven, Connecticut.  

UNH is currently in the process of joining the Northeast Conference and transferring into Division I from Division II. As such, this is the Terriers’ first time facing the Chargers. As a coach, Melissa Graves is 5-0 overall against teams from the NEC. Both the Terriers and the Chargers this season lost their first two games and won their most recent one. BU pulled off a victory against Northeastern, coming back from a 14-point deficit, on Tuesday evening. In UNH’s last game, on Wednesday, they crushed Purchase College 99-53, scoring more than they did in both of the first two games combined. 

Coming off of her first career start, sophomore guard Hildur Gunnsteinsdóttir is a key player to watch against the Chargers. She scored a career-high 15 points, going 60% from the field, and scoring a crucial 3-pointer against Northeastern at the end of the game to complete the win. Gunnsteinsdóttir has scored 20 points so far this season, which is already more than her freshman year point total through 21 games.

Starting point guard Bella McLaughlin is another key player to watch. She leads the team with 10 assists throughout the three games this season, half of which came from Tuesday’s game, where she also had zero turnovers. As an upperclassman, McLaughlin is taking on a bigger role on the team than last year. She’s started in all three games this season, as compared to nine out of 28 from last year, and joins Aoibhe Gormley and captains Anastasiia Semenova and Audrey Ericksen on the leadership group.

The UNH duo Teaira Kelley and Lindsay Hogan led the charge against Purchase on Wednesday evening, both scoring 16 points each. Kelley was perfect from the field, going eight-for-eight, contributing to the Charger’s season-high 54.3% field goal percentage. Not only did UNH find success on the offensive side, but they also had 20 steals on the defensive side. Hogan, Aniya McDonald-Perry, and Schuyler Coles all had four steals each.

With both teams coming off of huge wins, Saturday’s game between BU and UNH is sure to be exciting. Streaming will be available on NEC Frontrow at 3:30 p.m.