{"id":40423,"date":"2024-02-25T03:47:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T08:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40423"},"modified":"2024-03-20T23:49:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T03:49:49","slug":"aoibhe-gormley-arrives-in-overtime-loss-at-loyola-and-she-might-be-exactly-what-bu-womens-basketball-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/02\/25\/aoibhe-gormley-arrives-in-overtime-loss-at-loyola-and-she-might-be-exactly-what-bu-womens-basketball-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Aoibhe Gormley arrives in overtime loss at Loyola, and that’s huge for BU Women’s Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam<\/span> Robb O\u2019Hagan<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It would not be a stretch to say that Aoibhe Gormley, the freshman guard averaging under four points a game, was BU\u2019s best player on Saturday. Yes, Caitlin Weimar finished with a 22-point double-double. Yes, fellow freshman guard In\u00e9s Monteagudo canned a go-ahead 3-pointer with under a minute to go that would have \u2014 or should have, depending on who you ask \u2014 pulled the Terriers across the finish line. And yes, BU\u2019s 70-65 overtime loss to Loyola Maryland dealt an enormous blow to the Terriers\u2019 revived hopes of a regular season title.<\/span><\/p>\n

Head coach Melissa Graves was, of course, aware of all of this when she took questions after the game. But she didn\u2019t even need a direct question to heap praise on Gormley, who had just dropped a career-high 15 points and tied a career-high with seven assists.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAoibhe did a great job today,\u201d Graves said. \u201cI\u2019ve said this before. She\u2019s playing really well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That Gormley was at the front of Graves\u2019 mind is telling. It\u2019s not like there was a lack of developments to consider after a nail-biting extra-period loss in which BU blew a lead it held for almost 36 minutes. But, evidently, Gormley\u2019s play was of the most important.<\/span><\/p>\n

That checks out. In the second half, BU would\u2019ve been run off the floor without her. The Greyhounds, after making <\/span>six <\/span><\/i>shots in the entire first half, climbed back relentlessly after the break, only for Gormley to trudge, stroll, or race down the floor and hurt their feelings every single time. When Loyola cut it to two possessions early in the third, Gormley responded on back-to-back possessions with perfectly executed entry passes to Weimar for easy layups. When the Greyhounds trimmed the lead to 3, she exploded down the lane, drew two defenders and swung an overhead hook pass to a rolling Weimar, who completed a three-point play. And in the fourth quarter, when Loyola cut it to a point? Another dribble-drive into a sudden dump-off to Weimar. Like it was nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, by the way, junior Alex Giannaros, BU\u2019s starting point guard and one of the best in the Patriot League, sat most of the third in foul trouble before actually fouling out with four minutes left in the fourth. This was Gormley\u2019s offense in the second half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Loyola could not stop her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe took a lot on her shou<\/span>lders,\u201d Graves said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gormley has grown used to that. She has played in every game, and Graves\u2019 intent to use her as a ball-handler and a facilitator \u2014 a true point guard \u2014 was apparent from the start. It has been a significant role to take on as a freshman and Gormley learned it the hard way. Four and five-turnover performances in late December and early January were marred with intercepted passes in which the idea was admirable but, perhaps, just a little too overzealous. It was a calibration issue; when to try something, when to relax. Very clearly, though, she had talent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take it from Graves herself, who, after Gormley\u2019s seven-assist performance against Navy last Saturday, had this to say:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really starting to pick up how we want to play and the pace we want to play at. We\u2019ve really worked a lot with her, with trying to understand when is a good time to push \u2014 \u2018Is this opportunistic in transition? Or do we need to slow it down and run sets?\u2019\u201d Graves explained. \u201cI thought she did a great job of that. She really controlled pace. Again, as a freshman, it takes a little time to understand those pieces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In her last four games \u2014 the four biggest games of BU\u2019s season, to date \u2014 Gormley has been close to flawless. Her assist\/turnover ratio was over 3 on Saturday and in a win over Army and was over 2 in the win over Navy. She is third on the team with 70 assists this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

But also, and this is key, there was the career-high 15 points. Gormley has dropped a combined 29 in the last four, and that\u2019s not even counting a 13-point outing on February 2. She went to the line <\/span>12 <\/span><\/i>times on Saturday, making 10 of those free throws to make up for the scoring BU lost with Giannaros on the bench. She was not, as she was at the start of the year, easily penetrating the paint only to dump it off. Gormley was a legit scorer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really playing well\u2026trying to run the offense, get the ball inside,\u201d Graves said, \u201cbut also attacking downhill and scoring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gormley was <\/span>feeling<\/span><\/i> it. Even the 3-ball, where she had ventured just 23 times coming in, wasn\u2019t too far on Saturday. When Loyola again cut the lead to a possession with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the ball found Gormley, who stood at the logo as the shot clock dwindled. The Greyhounds had her dead to rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

She hurt their feelings again.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Giannaros that the Greyhounds couldn\u2019t stop. In all honesty, it wasn\u2019t really Weimar, either. It was Gormley, and maybe it wasn\u2019t such a coincidence that, only when she went to the bench with three-and-a-half minutes to go, did Loyola finally break through.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, yes, BU lost. It\u2019s true. But goodness, how badly the Terriers have needed a player like Gormley \u2014 one not named Caitlin or Alex \u2014 to step up. This isn\u2019t to ignore that BU has gotten immense play from a myriad of role players along this gauntlet final stretch. Monteagudo has made multiple critical 3-pointers without an ounce of hesitation. Sophomore forward Anastasiia Semenova\u00a0has delivered huge performances in conference play; senior guard Kelsi Mingo has become one of the league\u2019s best 3-point shooters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Gormley whose role gives her control of the offense and it\u2019s Gormley who has used it to keep BU going without its two superstars. Weimar fouled out in that win over Navy; Giannaros fouled out on Saturday. Gormley delivered career games each time.<\/span><\/p>\n

How valuable that could turn out to be. All season, the Terriers have been searching for a player to hold down the fort with Weimar or Giannaros off the floor. With three enormous games left and the tournament to follow, they just might have found her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing aggressive, in these pressure moments, as a freshman,\u201d Graves said, \u201cI\u2019m really proud of her for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FEATURED IMAGE BY ZUZU JANSEN<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan It would not be a stretch to say that Aoibhe Gormley, the freshman guard averaging under four points a game, was BU\u2019s best player on Saturday. Yes, Caitlin Weimar finished with a 22-point double-double. Yes, fellow freshman guard In\u00e9s Monteagudo canned a go-ahead 3-pointer with under a minute to go that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":40650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1039,1040],"tags":[1128,1129,1136,69,1145,1901,1908],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40423"}],"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=40423"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40958,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40423\/revisions\/40958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}