{"id":40362,"date":"2024-02-17T18:48:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T23:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40362"},"modified":"2024-02-17T18:49:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T23:49:23","slug":"womens-basketball-weimar-fouls-out-but-no-problems-as-bu-defeats-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/02\/17\/womens-basketball-weimar-fouls-out-but-no-problems-as-bu-defeats-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s basketball: Weimar fouls out, but no problems as BU defeats Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

By Brendan Galvin<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

With star senior forward Caitlin Weimar in foul trouble for most of the second half, it seemed like the Boston University women\u2019s basketball team might let their game against the Naval Academy slip away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weimar fouled out with a little over seven minutes left to play, with the Terriers (15-9, 7-6 Patriot League) ahead, 53-43. The question became: who would get BU across the finish line?<\/span><\/p>\n

The team responded with multiple answers: junior guard Alex Giannaros, sophomore forward Anastasiia Semanova, and senior guard Kelsi Mingo, who combined to score the last 16 points in the final seven minutes of the Terrier\u2019s wire-to-wire 69-60 win over Navy (9-15, 5-8 PL) on Saturday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Giannaros herself was in foul trouble, but that did not stop her from having a career day.<\/span><\/p>\n

She totaled 25 points and a career-high seven 3s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as how she shot it, we really had to try to run some stuff for her,\u201d BU head coach Melissa Graves said. \u201cI thought, aside from shooting, she passed it pretty well too.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While she only had two assists, Giannaros consistently found open teammates for good looks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed like the Terriers might run away with the game early, jumping out to a 15-2 lead in the first five minutes of the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Mids fought their way back into the game and, with the help of 25 Terrier turnovers, made it a close game late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the last five or so games, we’ve been pretty well [on turnovers],\u201d Graves said. \u201cOur goal is typically 12 or less, and we’ve been at that goal almost every game in the last couple games.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to get better in [full-court press] situations and be a little bit more calm, especially when [Weimar] is off the floor,\u201d she said.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On multiple occasions in the second half, Navy was able to close the gap to one possession, but the resiliency of BU helped answer the points by Navy with scores of their own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the Terriers ahead by one with time running out in the second quarter, freshman guard Audrey Erickson connected on a 3 from the corner as time expired, giving BU some momentum and a 36-32 lead going into the break.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Midshipmen, freshman guard Zanai Barnett-Gay led the way offensively, as she has all season. She scored 26 points and hauled in ten rebounds, also dishing out three assists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Barnett-Gay] is a problem already as a freshman for this league, and she will be for three more years after this,\u201d Graves said. \u201cShe will be Freshman of the Year in my eyes, and she’s a really talented player.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior wing Sydne Watts was also strong in both scoring and rebounding, totaling 22 points and nine rebounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought both of them played really well, but, you know, Barnett-Gay is not a surprise,\u201d Graves said. \u201cShe’s a very tough matchup for anybody in the league.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking solely at the stat sheet, you would not think BU would have been in the game, let alone win. Navy took an alarming 36 more shots than the Terriers, but thanks to the shooting successes of Giannaros and the rest of the team, BU came out on top.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Navy] gets almost 40 extra shots; there’s no way you think that we should win,” Graves said. \u201cThe fact that we shot so well really favored us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the foul troubles of Weimar and Giannaros, the Terriers were without senior guard Sophie Beneventine due to injury. It was just another reason why the stepping of the young players was so crucial for a team in the thick of the hunt for a Patriot League regular season title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Graves applauded freshman guard Aoibhe Gormley for her efforts, who played almost double her average minutes so far this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she handled the pressure pretty well, and to play that many more minutes is draining sometimes, and I thought she did a good job,\u201d Graves said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe helped get stops on defense, she helped control the tempo as a freshman point guard, and I thought she did a really good job considering she’s never played that many minutes before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team now sits one game out of first place in the conference, with games against two of the three teams above them in the standings still to play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First things first, however, they must take care of business at home against American on Wednesday, a team they are tied with conference record-wise. The Terriers have now won two in a row after losing three straight. Stringing together a few wins can mean a lot late in the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tip-off on Wednesday is set for 6 p.m. at Case Gym.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob Ireland By Brendan Galvin With star senior forward Caitlin Weimar in foul trouble for most of the second half, it seemed like the Boston University women\u2019s basketball team might let their game against the Naval Academy slip away. Weimar fouled out with a little over seven minutes left to play, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21479,"featured_media":39427,"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\/40362"}],"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\/21479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40364,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40362\/revisions\/40364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}