Women's Basketball Falls at Boston University; Terriers Stay Unbeaten in A-East Play

Boston, Mass. - Chantell Alford scored 13 points, including 11 in the second half, and added seven rebounds and five assists to lead Boston University to a 71-56 victory over UAlbany on Saturday, Jan. 16 at Case Gym. After a slow start, the Terriers used a 27-0 run in first half and held off the Great Danes' many attempts to rally in the second stanza to record their 24th straight win in America East Conference regular-season play.

UAlbany (7-9, AE 0-3), which trailed by a 38-20 score at halftime, scored the first six points and 12 of the first 15 to open the second stanza and climb back into the game. Delaney Cohan's three-point field goal from the right wing cut the Terrier lead to single digits at 41-32 with 13:02 left to play, while Charity Iromuanya had eight straight points to spark the run.

Boston U. (8-8, AE 4-0), which also won its 19th straight game against an America East opponent at Case Gym, recovered from the slow start and extended their lead back up to 15 points at 56-41 with 11:12 remaining. Mo Moran and Alford, both freshmen, each had four points by the midway point to keep the hosts ahead.

The Great Danes cut the Terrier lead to single digits twice and came as close as seven points at 56-49 when Felicia Johnson nailed a jumper from the top of the key with 4:34 on the clock. However, that was as close as the visitors would come. The Terriers hit 11 of their 12 free throw attempts the rest of the way to build their lead back up to as much as 17 before Cohan ended the scoring for both squads by converting two shots from the charity stripe in the waning seconds.

"We were coming off the road to play right after we got off the bus, and we needed to be more ready than we were today," said head coach Trina Patterson, whose squad will stay on the road and travel to Stony Brook on Tuesday, Jan. 19.. "We were not ready right away, and we needed to be more aggressive. We are a defensive team and need to be committed to it the entire time {if we want to succeed}."

UAlbany, which has four underclassmen and three freshmen in its young starting lineup, used the hot hand of Johnson to jump out to a 12-4 advantage in the first five minutes of the game. The sophomore point guard, who was named the team's America East player of the game, scored the Great Danes' first seven points before Iromuanya canned a trifecta and Julie Forster made a 15-foot jumper off an inbounds pass.

The Terriers responded by scoring 27 points in a row to take a comfortable 31-12 advantage. Three players combined to make six shots from downtown during the stretch.

"We dug ourselves a hole which was too deep," added Patterson. "I used two timeouts {during the run}, but they kept scoring in bunches. We also made several substitutions, but our bench was not committed at that time to stopping the three-point shot. You can't have mental letdowns like that."

A free throw by Ebone Henry at the 5:45 mark ended the Great Danes' scoreless drought which lasted over nine minutes. Cassandra Callaway's layup that beat the buzzer made it an 18-point deficit for the visitors at the break.

In addition to Alford, who was named her team's player of the game, Boston U. also had Moran, Hinton and Kristen Sims net double figures. Moran and Hinton had 12 points apiece, while Hinton grabbed eight rebounds.

Johnson and Iromuanya each scored 15 points for UAlbany, which dropped its third straight game after beginning the 2009-10 campaign with its best 13-game start as a Division I program. Iromuanya also had four steals. Callaway contributed seven points off the bench.

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information