In a game that saw an 18-point turnaround, a chipped tooth, and a gushing head wound, the women’s basketball team could not find the bottom of the net toward the end of the game.
Yale (3-3) fell to Boston University (6-2) Wednesday night, 76-67. The Bulldogs battled back from an 18-point halftime deficit to tie the score 54-54 on a Tory Mauseth ’05 3-pointer with 5:39 left to play but were unable to keep the offensive momentum in their favor.
“You come back from [being down 18], but why be down [18] to begin with?” head coach Amy Backus said.
The Elis dug themselves into a hole in the first half with 27.3 percent field goal shooting and 13 turnovers. In contrast, the team shot 43.3 percent from the field in the second half and only had six giveaways.
“The entire first half we just backed away from their pressure,” Backus said. “We definitely came out with [a] much more aggressive attacking mode [in the second half.]”
On defense, the Bulldogs gave up 17 first-half points to Terrier sophomore Katie Terhune. Terhune, who is averaging 19.3 points per contest, finished with a season-high 33 points.
“She’s a scorer,” BU head coach Margaret McKeon said. “She wanted the ball in her hands and we said get her the ball and get out of the way.”
The Bulldogs had trouble shutting down Terhune throughout the game.
“Katie Terhune is incredibly difficult to stop,” Backus said. “She uses her body to draw fouls better then almost any player I’ve ever seen.”
Indeed, Terhune had 16 free-throw attempts on the evening. Terhune, however, was not the only player to take multiple trips to the charity stripe. Yale and BU were called for 27 and 23 personal fouls, respectively.
“[The calls] were different than what we’ve seen,” Backus said. “That kind of hurt us because we’ve been able to play a little differently so far.”
Christina Phillips ’04 led the Bulldogs with 11 points in the loss. Brynn Gingras ’04 added 10 points of her own, including two 3-pointers.
The Elis, as has been their trend this season, opened the second half strong. The Bulldog bench provided an offensive spark that allowed Yale to to outscore BU 42-33 in the second half.
“Yale did a nice job in the second half,” Boston head coach Margaret McKeon said. “They never gave up, and I never thought they would. It was just that we made the plays down the stretch, and they didn’t.”
Behind 10 more points from Terhune, the Terriers opened up a 13-point lead down the stretch before ultimately walking away with the 9-point victory.
One of the scarier moments in the team’s young season hurt Yale’s momentum. With 7:50 left to play, Bonnie Smith ’04 collided with Terrier Adrienne Norris and received a deep gash on the side of her head. Smith had 8 points on the evening, 5 of which came in Yale’s comeback run. She returned to play the final minutes but was sent for stitches after the game. Norris suffered a chipped tooth.
“Bonnie going out at that point was a little bit of a momentum shift,” Backus said. “We couldn’t stop them down the stretch.”