The Boston University women’s basketball team saw its three-game win streak come to an end Wednesday evening as it dropped the first end of a two-game road stint to American University, 69-44.
The Terriers (11-17, 6-9 Patriot League) started out slow and fell in a four-point hole after allowing the Eagles (19-7, 12-3 Patriot League) to get on the board first with a jump shot and two free-throw makes.
Back-to-back field goals from senior forward Rashidat Agboola and sophomore guard Clodagh Scannell helped the Terriers knot the score back up with 16:07 to go in the opening half at four apiece. The teams traded points almost evenly for the next four minutes until the Eagles began to pull away, extending their lead to 10 points before senior guard Melissa Gallo sunk a 3-pointer to end the run.
American would continue to run away with the score, and by the end of the first half, the Terriers were down by a 33-17 margin.
“I felt the beginning of the game really hurt us,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “We just missed a lot of open shots … and then we just seemed to get down on ourselves that we weren’t knocking down shots and then the end of the half they went on that 8-0 run, which gave them a lot of momentum going into halftime.
“[Then] they came out and made their first couple of shots of the second half. I believe it was a [18]-0 run into the half and the beginning of the second half, and that was really the difference in the game.”
BU went a little over nine-and-a-half minutes without registering a point between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, despite a number of attempts on the offensive end.
By the time BU was finally able to put points on the board again from a free throw from senior guard Danielle Callahan with 15:36 remaining, the Eagles had amounted a 25-point edge.
A 3-pointer by guard Ti’Asia McGeorge allowed American to widen the gap to a game-high 29 points with 11:48 to go in the second. The Terriers then strung together a small run of their own and were able to pull to within 20 with 6:53 remaining. However, the Eagles took control again and rode away with a 25-point lead to close out the game.
“There were just a couple of plays there where, when we reversed the ball, we got a couple of nice high-lows in the second half, which was great,” Greenberg said.
Forward Aaron Zimmerman led the way for American with a double-double, notching 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. She was not the only Eagle in double digits, as junior Jen Dumiak also netted 10 points of her own.
For the Terriers, it was Agboola and Gallo leading the charge, with both scoring 12 points. Agboola also led BU in rebounds with six and Scannell was next on the stat sheet with five.
By the end of the game, BU had made just 17-of-51 field goal attempts for a 33 percent field goal percentage. American was a bit more efficient, going 24-of-58 for a 41 percent rate from the field.
The Eagles also bested the Terriers in the 3-point department, sinking 11-of-25 3-point chances, while BU hit just four of its 22 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I thought we got okay shots, we just didn’t knock them down, and they made a lot of shots,” Greenberg said. “Some of their shots were wide open because of our zone, but they just made a lot more shots than we did.”
