Women???s Basketball Falls Short Against Indiana, 62-54
December 10, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Box Score / (.pdf)
Season Stats
INDIANAPOLIS ??? The Boston University women???s basketball team had its five-game win streak snapped on Saturday evening, falling 62-54 against Indiana at the RCA Dome. Senior Cyndi Valentin tallied a game-high 24 points for the Hoosiers, who improved to 5-4. Sophomore Cheri Raffo set a new career high for the second straight game, scoring a BU-high 20 points. The Terriers moved to 5-2 on the year with the loss.
BU went 7-of-15 (.467) from 3-point range in the first half, but missed all nine of its attempts from behind the arc in the second half, leading to a season-low 30.6-percent shooting performance for the game. Indiana took its first lead of the game with under six minutes left in the first half and never relinquished it. The Hoosiers held a lead between four and eight points for the final 13 minutes of regulation.
Sophomore Kasey Devine recorded 10 points and added a team-best nine rebounds to go along with a game-high four blocks. Junior Katie Meinhardt contributed eight points and four assists, while senior Rachael Vanderwal led all players in assists with six to raise her career total to 267, helping her move into eighth on BU???s all-time list.
Valentin used a perfect 11-for-11 performance from the free-throw line to boost her scoring total. She recorded eight free throws in the final two minutes of regulation to help the Hoosiers maintain their lead. Seniors Angela Hawkins and Jenny DeMuth each registered 12 points, while Hawkins hauled in a season-high 16 rebounds for her first double-double of the year.
After taking a couple of possessions to get adjusted to Indiana???s zone defense, the Terriers started connecting from long range, as four of their first five baskets were 3-pointers. The success from behind the arc led to an early 14-6 BU lead.
The Hoosiers went on to score 10 of the game???s next 12 points and kept the Terriers scoreless for a stretch of over five minutes to knot the game at 16-all with under eight minutes left in the first half.
Valentin???s fourth basket of the opening half gave Indiana its first lead of the contest at 20-18 with 5:52 left before the half. After the Hoosiers upped their lead to five, junior Erica Kovach connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the circle with four ticks left in the half to cut BU???s halftime deficit to just two points at 29-27.
Raffo went 6-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-5 from behind the arc, in the first half to record 16 points before intermission.
IU scored the first six points of the second half to boost its advantage to 35-27 before taking its largest lead of the evening at 43-34 with 13:25 left in the second half.
Down four with under eight minutes to play, the Terriers had two possessions to try and get within a basket of the Hoosiers, but shots came up short on both tries.
The Terriers held the Hoosiers without a field goal for the final four minutes of play, but Valentin and the Hoosiers utilized the free-throw line to secure the win.
BU will return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 13, when it makes the short trip to Harvard to face the Crimson at 7 p.m. It will be the 21st meeting between the two schools and the series is knotted at 10-10.
