Women's Basketball Kicks Off Long Road Stretch at Brown
December 7, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Boston University will look to secure its first five-game win streak in nearly two seasons when it visits Brown University in the first match-up between the two schools since 1998. The Terriers won seven straight contests, all coming against America East opponents, between from Jan. 24-Feb. 14, 2004. The last time BU strung together five straight wins over non-conference opponents was during the 2001-02 campaign.
SERIES HISTORY: Brown leads the all-time series between the two schools by a slim 6-5 margin and has been victorious in the past four meetings. The teams played for eight consecutive seasons beginning with the 1991-92 campaign and last met on Dec. 9, 1998, in a 79-67 road win by the Bears. BU won the first three meetings, including the first-ever matchup in Providence on Dec. 30, 1981.
SCOUTING THE BEARS: Brown (3-3) is coming off an impressive performance at its own Brown Classic, capturing the tournament title with wins over Hampton (86-71) and Stony Brook (71-62). Senior captain Sarah Hayes was named the tournament MVP after tallying 20 points, including the 1,000th of her career, in the championship game against the Seawolves. Hayes hauled in eight rebounds in each contest and netted 25 points in the triumph over Hampton. She is averaging team highs of 17.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
The Bears??? first four contests were on the road, as they opened the year with a win at Fairfield before falling to Lehigh. At the URI Thanksgiving Tournament, Brown fell to the Rams in the first round before being edged by Ole Miss in the consolation game.
Senior sharpshooter Colleen Kelly is averaging 12.0 points per contest and is shooting a remarkable 55.6 percent from behind the arc. Junior Ashley King-Bischof, who at 5-10 is the tallest player in the Bears??? guard-oriented starting lineup, is contributing 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Brown is forcing its opponents to commit an average of 23.0 turnovers per game.
Last season, the Bears posted the third-most wins in their program???s 31-year history with an 18-9 overall record. Jean Marie Burr, the reigning Rhode Island Division I Coach of the Year, is in her 18th season as head coach at Brown, where she has posted a 246-211 record.
ROAD STRETCH BEGINS: The Terriers are kicking off their longest stretch of road games in 14 seasons, as they will be away from the friendly confines of The Roof for the next eight contests. During the 1991-92 campaign, BU played nine straight games on the road and was victorious in four of them.
HOME, SWEET HOME: The Terriers swept the non-conference portion of their home schedule for the first time since the 1988-89 campaign. BU went 3-0 against non-conference foes at The Roof, posting wins over Long Island and former America East schools Northeastern and Delaware. In 1988-89, the Terriers won all four of their non-league contests at home, recording victories over Liberty, Siena, Central Connecticut and Brooklyn.
GREENBERG NO STRANGER TO THE BEARS: While all of the BU players will be facing Brown for the first time in their careers, head coach Kelly Greenberg will be facing the Bears for the 11th time in her coaching career. Greenberg spent five seasons at the helm of the Penn program and faced Brown twice a year in Ivy League play. During her five-year stint, Greenberg and the Quakers went 7-3 against the Bears, including season sweeps during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 campaigns.
MOVIN??? ON UP: Senior co-captain Rachael Vanderwal entered BU???s top-10 list in career assists with a three-assist performance at Canisius and has now totaled 260 in her four seasons with the Terriers. Karen Wood ???88 and Terry Shinkwin ???81 are ninth and eighth with 261 and 263 assists, respectively.
BLACKBIRDS NO MATCH FOR TERRIERS: Behind a game-high 13 points from junior Katie Meinhardt and 12 more from freshman Jesyka Burks-Wiley, BU cruised to a 72-45 home victory over Long Island on Saturday to extend its win streak to four games.
In all, 10 BU players found their way into the scorebook, and six of them tallied eight points or more. Sophomore Kasey Devine continued her strong play of late, recording nine points and a game-best eight rebounds, while fellow sophomores Corinne Jean and Cheri Raffo, along with Vanderwal, each contributed eight points. Raffo added a game-high four assists. BU shot 43.1 percent from the floor, while holding LIU to 28.6-percent shooting.
GREENBERG REACHES CENTURY MARK: With BU???s 73-46 victory over Northeastern, head coach Kelly Greenberg picked up the 100th victory of her career. She has averaged over 16 wins per season during her first six years as a head coach and has posted an overall record of 103-71, resulting in a winning percentage of .592.
CLIMBING IVY: BU is 37-13 all-time against schools from the Ivy League. The Terriers most recent meeting with one of the conference???s member schools was a 59-52 home victory over Harvard on Dec. 14, 2004, to knot the all-time series with its cross-town foe at 10-10. The Terriers have played five of the Ancient Eight schools and Brown is the only Ivy team to have a winning record against BU. Here is a breakdown of the Terriers??? record versus each school it has faced:
Brown 5-6
Columbia 1-0
Dartmouth 13-6
Harvard 10-10
Yale 8-1
KOVACH, PETRANOFF RETURN TO BU LINEUP: After missing the second half of last season due to injury, junior Erica Kovach completed her rehabilitation and has come off the bench in four contests, averaging 11.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Also making a comeback is senior Shannon Petranoff, who missed her entire junior season due to injury. She tied her season high with six rebounds in the win over Long Island and added six points in the win over Northeastern. The post duo has combined to go 19-of-32 (.594) from the floor so far this season.
GUARDS FILL REBOUNDING VOID: After losing over half of its rebounding production with the graduation of forwards Adrienne Norris, Larissa Parr and Becky Bonner, the Terriers have accounted for the void with strong play off the glass by their guards. Vanderwal is averaging a team-best 7.4 rebounds per game and Kinneary is averaging 6.2 boards per contest.
ON THE AIRWAVES: BU???s student radio station, WTBU, will be broadcasting all 27 of the Terriers??? regular-season contests this season. Jonah Goldberg and Brian Maurer will serve as the WTBU???s broadcast team throughout the year. Each game will be streamed live at www.wtburadio.com
