Terriers To Take On No. 25 Vanderbilt
November 23, 2000 | Women's Basketball
The Boston University women's basketball team travels down to Nashville, TN to participate in the First Tennessee Tournament, held at Vanderbilt University on November 25-26. The Terriers face the 25th-ranked Commodores in the second game on Saturday night at 7 p.m. B.U. will then face either Austin Peay or Miami University (Ohio) on Sunday at 2 or 4 p.m.
Charting New Territory: The Terriers are playing in the state of Tennessee for the first time in program history this weekend... The last time the Terriers played in the area was December 29, 1992, when they lost to Western Kentucky, 70-59.
B.U. vs. The Tournament Field:
Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt is currently ranked No. 25 in the nation... The Commodores have made 10-straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, 12 overall... 1-1 this season defeating Georgia Southern 88-70 in it's most recent game... The Commodores are led by head coach Jim Foster, in his 10th season... Zuzi Klimesova is leading the team in scoring, averaging 18.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg in two games... Boston University is 1-0 all-time versus Vanderbilt... The Terriers defeated the Commodores in the teams' only meeting on November 25, 1981, 80-78 in Boston.
Austin Peay: The Terriers and Lady Govs would be meeting for the first time... Austin Peay is currently 1-1 on the season, defeating Jacksonville State, 73-62 in its' latest contest... The Lady Govs are led by head coach Susie Gardner, now in her fifth season... The team finished 15-15 last season, 9-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference... Sophomore guard Paige Smith leads the team in scoring averaging 17.5 ppg... Senior forward Jocelyn Duke is averaging 16.0 ppg and 10.0 rpg.
Miami University (Ohio): The Terriers and RedHawks met just last week in the consolation game of the B.U. Women's Basketball Invitational on November 19... The RedHawks prevailed in overtime, 102-97... Miami is led by third-year head coach Maria Fantanarosa... Senior guard Jenny Martin is the top returning scorer, averaging 13.0 ppg and 2.5 rpg in '99-00.
In Recent Action: Miami (OH) 102, Boston University 97 BOSTON, Mass. (November 19) - Freshman forward Katie Terhune (Port Murray, NJ) scored a team-high 27 points and had a record-setting day at the foul line, but it wasn't enough as the Boston University women's basketball team fell to Miami University (Ohio) in overtime, 102-97, in the consolation game of the B.U. Women's Basketball Invitational on Sunday. Baylor University defeated Yale, 81-52, in the championship, the first-ever in-season basketball tournament to be held at Boston University. with 17.5 ppg.
Broken Records: Despite losing to Miami (OH), 102-97 in the consolation of the B.U. Women's Basketball Invitational on Nov. 19, the Terriers did set some team and individual records in the game. Freshman Katie Terhune hit on 17-of-18 shots from the line, setting a new mark for free throws made in a game, while tying the mark of free throws attemped... Terhune broke the old mark of 13, set by Jill Sosnak '95 versus Hartford on February 2, 1991. The 18 free throws attempted ties the record set by Debbie Miller '81 versus Syracuse on January 4, 1980. In addition, the 37 free throws made by the Terriers breaks the previous team mark of 33 set against Central Connecticut on December 13, 1980.
Season Twenty-six: The Boston University women's basketball team begins its 26th season of varsity competition with a renewed sense of optimism in head coach Margaret McKeon's second season. The Terriers return all five starters from last year's squad, including America East All-Conference Second Team selection Alison Dixon (16.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg), the Terriers' fifth-leading scorer all-time with 1,296 points...Boston University also returns a solid bench while McKeon's first full recruiting class is on board to press for playing time... The Terriers completed the 1999-2000 season with an 8-21 record, 3-15 in America East-play... Since 1975-76, B.U. has accumulated an overall record of 312-331 (.485)... The Terriers are 12-13 in season openers, 10-6 in season openers played at home.
Head Coach Margaret McKeon: Margaret McKeon, a highly-successful collegiate player and assistant coach, returns for her second season as the head women's basketball coach at Boston University... McKeon tasted success in her first collegiate game on November 20, 1999, as the Terriers defeated Colgate, 78-58 on "The Roof." Three days later, McKeon registered win number two, a 75-67 triumph at Harvard. It was the first time B.U. had begun the season 2-0 since the 1994-95 season...The Terriers finished McKeon's inaugural campaign with an 8-21 record...The team responded in the America East Tournament, scoring a season-high 84 points in an 84-69 win over Towson in the first round before falling to America East Championship runner-up Maine in the quarterfinals... In her first year, McKeon established an up-tempo presence among the Terriers, enacting a rapid pace to the team's practices as well as its games.
Quoting McKeon: "I expect more consistency from us this year, and I believe this team will fight to the bitter end. We have three ingredients in place to be a successful team; we have an impact player in Ali Dixon, we have the supporting cast with players like Dia Dufault, and we have depth on the bench now with five incoming freshman looking to earn minutes."
Worthy Additions: The Terriers have two new assistants working alongside head coach Margaret McKeon and assistant Gabrielle Butler... Patrina Blow, who served as an assistant at Hofstra University for the past three seasons, was hired on May 22... Blow is a former four-year letterwinner for St. John's from 1990-94... Michael Eineker, who spent the past two seasons as head coach at Bloomfield College (NJ), was hired on Sept. 7.
Terriers in Tourney Action: Boston University hosted the first-ever in season basketball tournament at the school last weekend, Nov. 18-19, with Miami (OH), Yale and Baylor... B.U. lost to Yale, 81-60 in the opening game, and fell to Miami in the consolation game, 102-97 in overtime... Baylor won the B.U. Women's Basketball Invitational with an 81-52 win over Yale in the championship... The Terriers also competed in a pair of tournaments in 1999, the Fresno State Classic on November 27-28 and the Davidson Roundball Invitational on December 4-5... The Terriers went 0-4 in their four tournament games, falling to Fresno State, 83-57 and Boise State, 59-58, in the Fresno State Tournament. They lost to Marshall, 59-52 and Davidson, 61-57 in the Davidson Roundball Invitational.
The Exhibition Games: November 1 - Boston University 95, N.Y. Gazelles 62 Junior forward Dia Dufault (Malone, NY) scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while senior forward Alison Dixon (Norwood, MA) added 20 points to lead the Boston University women's basketball team to a convincing 95-62 win over the New York Gazelles basketball club... Dixon and Dufault were the Terriers' top two scorers last season, averaging 16.4 and 11.9 points per game, respectively. Seven of Dufault's rebounds were offensive...The Gazelles held a lead for the first nine minutes of the contest until junior forward Anne Nelson hit Dixon for a layup that gave the Terriers a 16-15 lead with 10:58 left in the half... B.U. would never trail after that... The Terriers went on a 21-9 run over the next five minutes to open up a 34-24 lead with 4:14 left in the half.
November 9 - Boston University 75, Netherlands National Team 68: Senior forward Alison Dixon scored a game-high 20 points on 9-for-17 shooting to lead the Boston University women's basketball team to a 75-68 win over the Netherlands National Team...The Netherlands held the lead for much of the second half until Werner, who had 13 points, hit a jumper to put B.U. up for good, 69-68 with 1:23 left in the game. B.U. scored the final five points of the game as the Netherlands resorted to fouling the Terriers...Freshman Katie Terhune had another solid game for the Terriers, netting 17 points. Freshman Lashaunda Mitchell added six points and a team-high three steals.
Dixon Is Grand: Junior forward Alison Dixon became the second fastest player in school history to reach 1,000 career points in a losing effort as the Terriers bowed to Drexel, 60-59, dropping their record to 4-7 overall, 1-2 in the conference. Dixon finished with 19 points, bringing her career total to 1,010 in 65 games. Debbie Miiller, the Terriers all-time leading scorer, was the fastest to reach the 1,000-point plateau, doing it in 54 games.
McKeon Begins With a 'W': Sophomore guard Dia Dufault scored a career-high 25 points, while junior Alison Dixon added 24 as the Margaret McKeon era at Boston University began with a 78-58 win over Colgate University on November 20, 1999... With the win, McKeon became the second head coach in Terrier women's basketball history to win in her first game with the program. Chris Basile was the other, earning a 47-41 win over Maine on November 21, 1983.
Offense, Defense Improved: Under McKeon, the team improved it's shooting from the prior year, connecting on 41.1 percent of shots from the field, as opposed to 39.4 in 1998-99. The Terriers became more of a three-point threat with the additions of Alison Argentieri and Pilar Verde, hitting 98-of-334 attempts, 29.3 percent from long range. That number was over four percentage points from the previous year...Defensively, the Terriers were much improved. Opponents shot only 40.7 percent from the field last season, as opposed to 45.7 percent in 1998-99. The rebound disparity was much closer as well. In 1998-99, B.U. averaged 33.1 rpg while opponents pulled down 42.8 rpg. Last season however, B.U. averaged 35.9 rebounds per game as opposed to 37.1 for opponents.
Dominating Dixon: Center Alison Dixon completed her junior year as the fifth-leading scorer in Terrier history with 1,296 points, exactly 600 shy of Debbie Miller's '81 school mark of 1,869. After scoring 27 points in her first two games this season, she is only 107 points shy of Jill Sosnak '95, who is currently second on the Terriers' career list. A second team America East All-Conference selection in 1999-00, Dixon has averaged 15.6 points per game in her three seasons at B.U., including 16.4 last season, good for fifth in the conference. In 1999-00, she set personal highs in most major categories, including field goals made (198), field goal percentage (52.8%), rebounding (7.0 rebounds per game), steals (42), minutes per game (35.3) and points.
The Rain in Spain: Sophomore guard Pilar Verde, a mid-season addition from Madrid, Spain, really began to blossom towards the end of the season as she became accustomed to playing with new teammates in a new country. She led the Terriers in scoring in both of the team's America East Championship Tournament games, netting 21 points in an 84-69 victory over No. 8 Towson in the opening round, and scoring 17 in a 73-52 quarterfinal loss to the University of Maine... Verde's 21 points in the Towson game was good for a tie for the fifth-highest point total in the tournament. Jamie Cassidy also scored 21 points in Maine's win over the Terriers... Verde is nursing a foot injury and is doubtful for the tournament.
Off to a Good Start: Alison Argentieri started 27 straight games as a freshman for the Terriers last season, the second most in team history... She was one start shy of the mark held by Julie Schmidt, who started 28 consecutive games in 1995... Argentieri enjoyed a fine freshman season with the Terriers, averaging 6.8 points per game and 3.4 assists per game, which was good for seventh in the America East... Argentieri was also B.U.'s most consistent three-point threat, hitting on 38.3 percent (36-for-94) of her shots from beyond the arc. The first year guard from Hornell, NY scored a season and career-high 21 points in just her second varsity game, a 75-67 win over Harvard on November 23.
Dia Delivers: Junior guard/forward Dia Dufault has proven to be one of the Terriers most versatile players in her first two seasons... Dufault finished second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.9 points per game, tying a career-high with 25 points in the season-opening win over Colgate. Dufault led the team with 59 steals, and was second in rebounding (6.6 per game) and assists (2.6 per game), while starting 28-of-29 games. She was a consistent three-point threat, hitting 20-of-84 threes and only Alison Dixon went to the line more than Dufault's 104 trips.
Terriers on the Defensive: Boston University played a more up-tempo style at both ends of the court in Margaret McKeon's first year as head coach, as evidenced by the Terriers' fourth-place standing in the conference in field goal percentage defense... Opponents shot just 40.7 percent against B.U. last season, including a 68-55 win over SUNY Albany on March 8th, when the Great Danes shot just 29.7 percent (19-of-64) for the game.
