{"id":35996,"date":"2023-01-19T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T16:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=35996"},"modified":"2023-01-19T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T16:01:17","slug":"womens-basketball-terriers-flex-their-muscles-blow-out-navy-to-win-seventh-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/01\/19\/womens-basketball-terriers-flex-their-muscles-blow-out-navy-to-win-seventh-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball: Terriers flex their muscles, blow out Navy to win seventh straight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boston University Women\u2019s Basketball (12-6, 7-0 PL) defeated the Navy Midshipmen (1-17, 1-6 PL) with ease to start 7-0 in the Patriot League for the first time in program history with an 84-41 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With seconds left in the second quarter, sophomore guard Alex Giannaros received the inbound off a Navy free throw. She weaved through several defenders, before finding her spot at the bottom of the BU logo at Case Gymnasium. The buzzer went, followed by a roar; Giannaros drained the buzzer-beating logo three, her fourth long ball of the quarter to cap a 17-point first half performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m shooting it pretty well. So I\u2019m feeling confident,\u201d Giannaros said after the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No amount of words would describe the game for the Terriers better than Giannaros&#8217; logo three; just about everything went right in what would become BU\u2019s largest win of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis was a great team win, everyone got to get in and contribute in a positive way,\u201d BU Head Coach Melissa Graves said.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Terriers flexed their strongest muscle against the struggling Midshipmen \u2014 who won their first game of the season on Sunday \u2014 making nine threes after entering the game as the number one 3-point shooting team in the nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BU finished with a 37.5% clip from beyond the arc, but were shooting the three at over 60% through three quarters before a cold fourth quarter painted a deceivingly unimpressive shooting performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat\u2019s what we do,\u201d Giannaros said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a surprise that we\u2019re shooting this well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For every three they made, the Terriers were even more dominant in the paint. Junior forward Caitlin Weimar finished with a double-double \u2014 her 10th of the season \u2014 as she hauled in 14 rebounds and scored 17 points on 70% shooting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe talked about getting the ball inside and playing inside and I thought we did that really well,\u201d Graves said, \u201cEspecially with Caitlin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other end of the floor, Weimar and senior forward Maren Durant were impenetrable, allowing Navy just six points in the paint and forcing the Midshipmen into difficult jumpers all night long.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have size that alters shots and it makes it a lot harder for guards to get in there (the paint),\u201d Graves said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Navy guards Sydne Watts and Maren Louridas particularly struggled, combining to shoot 11-for-30 from the field and 0-for-8 from three on a myriad of difficult looks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Graves was sure to emphasize that her team\u2019s dominant defensive performance in the paint was a collaborative effort.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe continually work on our helpline rotations and making sure we have early helpline to protect the paint,\u201d Graves said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Terriers continued their excellence both in the paint and behind the 3-point line, but BU was consistently dangerous in transition, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI also think our guards did a great job today even running the floor in transition, they sprint the floor,\u201d Graves said. \u201cThe spacing was really good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That spacing was of notable importance to senior guard Sydney Johnson, who finished with five assists, a profit gained through precise distribution in transitions throughout the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Johnson, like all of her teammates, was playing her role with evident confidence; two of her assists came on impressive one-handed passes down the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019ve always known that we\u2019ve had the talent to do what we are doing,\u201d Giannaros said. \u201cSo keep trusting the process and everything we\u2019ve been working for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Terriers, atop in the Patriot League standings and as confident as ever, will now hit the road for their next two games of conference play, the first of which against Loyola Maryland on Saturday at 2 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan Boston University Women\u2019s Basketball (12-6, 7-0 PL) defeated the Navy Midshipmen (1-17, 1-6 PL) with ease to start 7-0 in the Patriot League for the first time in program history with an 84-41 victory. With seconds left in the second quarter, sophomore guard Alex Giannaros received the inbound off a Navy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":35356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1039,1040],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35996"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35999,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35996\/revisions\/35999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}