{"id":40007,"date":"2024-01-27T21:43:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T02:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40007"},"modified":"2024-01-27T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T02:44:00","slug":"womens-basketball-caitlin-weimar-shines-as-bu-takes-down-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/01\/27\/womens-basketball-caitlin-weimar-shines-as-bu-takes-down-lafayette\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball: Caitlin Weimar shines as BU Takes Down Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Claire Guest<\/em><\/p>\n

By Luke Scotchie<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Caitlin Weimar had herself the game of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

It feels as though such a phrase is uttered after every screech of Case Gymnasium\u2019s final buzzer. But this was not just another Caitlin Weimar game. It truly might have just been the game of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Boston University (13-6, 5-3 PL) senior forward finished Saturday\u2019s 51-39 victory over Lafayette (6-13, 1-7 PL) with 26 points off of 10-for-16 shooting from the field, 12 rebounds, a career-high 7 blocks and 4 steals. She scored more points than all of her teammates combined (25 total points), and did so without attempting a single shot from behind the 3-point line.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe impacts the game in so many different ways in such a huge capacity,\u201d BU head coach Melissa Graves said after the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not an exaggeration, as Weimar\u2019s defense might have been the most important part of BU\u2019s victory on Saturday. Her nine defensive boards made up nearly a third of BU\u2019s total (28 defensive rebounds), and she recorded more steals and blocks than Lafayette managed to muster as a team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCait brings so much more than just the scoring piece, which is a big statistic that a lot of people see,\u201d Graves said. \u201cEven today, she almost had a triple double with her blocks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Weimar\u2019s defenders quickly realized how dominant she was on the court. By the end of the second quarter, Lafayette would send three of their players to triple-team her whenever she caught the ball near the basket.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been kind of how the league has tried to guard her the last couple of years,\u201d Graves said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t enough to stop Weimar, as those triple-teams opened up several good looks for her teammates, including a wide-open 3-pointer from junior guard Alex Giannaros that Weimar assisted.<\/span><\/p>\n

To Graves, plays like those signal Weimar\u2019s improvement as a playmaker. Her ability to see Giannaros in between the arms of Lafayette\u2019s many defenders was not something that she could have done in previous years, and the quick pass to the sophomore guard is symbolic of how far she\u2019s since come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the triple-teams in the past, she may not have been able to find (a way) out as easily, where she\u2019s become a really good passer this year,\u201d Graves said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s been a focus of hers, how she can share the ball better and find what\u2019s open.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For as dominant as Weimar and the Terriers looked on Saturday, it didn\u2019t start off that way. BU struggled to open the game as they allowed two easy shots from Lafayette and quickly fell behind 5-0. The Terriers scored their first points of the game off of free throws from Giannaros, nearly four minutes after the opening tipoff.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first period ended in a stalemate, 10-10. The Terriers picked themselves up midway through the quarter, but they still couldn\u2019t buy a bucket, going just 4-for-13 from the field after the first buzzer sounded. They were lucky that Lafayette\u2019s shots weren\u2019t hitting the net, either (4-for-16).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But once the second period began, BU began to capitalize off of Lafayette\u2019s mistakes. They scored 8 points off of Lafayette turnovers in just six minutes, most of which contributed to a 10-0 run that spanned nearly three whole minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we did a really good job on the defensive end to get the stops that we needed to get,\u201d Graves. \u201cWe usually track forced stops. We had nine today, which was probably a season high.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the half, the Terriers found themselves ahead, 24-17. They discussed their ambivalent performance and possible adjustments in the locker room and returned to the court ready to close the game out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once they returned to the floor, they refused to look back, keeping their lead until the game concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got much higher-percentage looks in the second half and I thought we continued our defensive pressure intensity,\u201d Graves said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This victory secures the Terriers\u2019 third-ranked spot in the Patriot League, and it ties their overall record with that of Holy Cross (13-6, 7-1 PL), the conference leaders. The Crusaders dropped their first Patriot League game against Lehigh (12-7, 4-4 PL) on Saturday, a result that Graves celebrated after finding out during the postgame press conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers will travel to Worcester to play Holy Cross on Monday at 4:00 p.m. in a 2023 Patriot League title game rematch, hoping to take the Crusaders\u2019 title as the team with the best overall record in the conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very important game, one that Graves hopes will be the first step toward this team\u2019s full potential before the postseason begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can continue to improve throughout the rest of this conference play as we head into playoffs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Claire Guest By Luke Scotchie Caitlin Weimar had herself the game of her life. It feels as though such a phrase is uttered after every screech of Case Gymnasium\u2019s final buzzer. But this was not just another Caitlin Weimar game. It truly might have just been the game of her life. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21480,"featured_media":39429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1039,1040],"tags":[1128,69,1145,1789,1901],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40007"}],"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\/21480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40009,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40007\/revisions\/40009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}