Women???s Basketball Takes on St. John???s on Sunday
December 15, 2006 | Women's Basketball
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The Boston University women’s basketball team (6-4) hosts Big East member St. John’s (3-6) on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Terriers will be playing their final game before the holiday break, and will regroup for the Dartmouth Tournament on Dec. 29-30.
THE TERRIERS: Boston University is led by senior tri-captain Katie Meinhardt’s 15.7 points per game and senior tri-captain Erica Kovach’s 7.4 rebounds per game. Both seniors have started every game this season, leading the Terriers to a 6-4 overall record.
Junior tri-captain Cheri Raffo and freshman Aly Hinton have also been regular starters throughout the season and currently average 9.6 and 7.6 ppg, respectively. Sophomore guard Kristi Dini and freshman forward Kristen Folk have been utilized off the bench, as both have seen significant minutes.
The Terriers opened the season with three straight victories over URI, UMKC and Northeastern before falling in the next three games to Canisius, No. 7 UConn and No. 12/13 ASU. BU rebounded with back-to-back wins over Eastern Michigan and Brown. Recently, BU fell to Delaware and then defeated cross-town foe Harvard University. BU has faced two ranked opponents – UConn and ASU – and faced a Delaware team that had received votes in both the AP and ESPN Coaches’ polls.
LAST TIME OUT: Boston University, led by a team-high 18 points from senior tri-captain Katie Meinhardt, defeated cross-town foe Harvard University, 77-63, at Case Gym on Tuesday night. The Terriers shot 53 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, led by senior Erica Kovach and sophomore Kristi Dini, who were a combined 6-for-10.
Kovach scored in double digits, recording 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Sophomore Amarachi Umez-Eronini achieved a career high with 11 points.
As a team, the Terriers were 23-of-30 from the free throw line, and shot 46.9 percent from the field – their highest percentage since Nov. 21 at Northeastern.
SCOUTING THE RED STORM: St. John’s sports a 3-6 overall record coming into today’s contest, which is the first in a three-game road series for the Red Storm.
St. John’s recently earned its third win of the season versus Nicholls State, 63-50, led by Joy McCorvey’s 19 points and 10 rebounds. Monique McLean also recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Prior to that, St. John’s lost back-to-back games to Hartford and Syracuse. The Red Storm opened the season on a three-game slide before picking up its first win versus Brown at the Maine Tournament.
McLean and Tiina Sten are averaging in double figures with 16.9 ppg and 14.3 ppg, respectively.
St. John’s is marked by its youth as two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior have started the majority of its matches. Head coach Kim Barnes Arico is in her fourth season at St. John’s. She has an overall record of 63-63 with the Red Storm and a 157-134 career record.
BU VS. ST. JOHN’S: The Terriers and Red Storm have matched up in 10 contests and St. John’s holds the 9-1 series advantage. The series opened on Feb. 3, 1979, at St. John’s Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y. The Red Storm won that game by a 72-56 margin.
BU’s lone win came in the 1979-80 season, as it took St. John’s into double overtime and left with a 90-81 win. The next season, the Terriers and Red Storm played another overtime game, a 104-94 St. John’s victory.
Following those early games the two teams played regularly throughout the 1980s, however they did not meet once in the 1990s. Last season, the Terriers and Red Storm rekindled the series, as St. John’s defeated BU 64-53 in the season opener. The Red Storm’s Kia Wright led with 17 points, while BU’s Rachael Vanderwal had a team-high 15 points.
St. John’s averages 79.1 points per game against the Terriers, while BU has posted 68.5 ppg versus the Red Storm.
BU VS. THE BIG EAST: BU is 19-50 (.275) against Big East schools and has played all but four schools in the conference – Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia and Villanova. Its most contested series is with Providence (6-14) and most recently, BU faced then-No. 7 Connecticut in Storrs, Conn. Over the past ten years, the Terriers have gone 0-4 against Big East schools with two losses to both Providence and Connecticut.
BU’s wins have come over Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John’s, Syracuse and USF.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Terriers will take an eight-day layoff before regrouping for the Dartmouth Tournament on Dec. 29 and 30. For the holiday tournament, BU will face Dayton in the first round and either No. 4 Duke or host Dartmouth in the second round. Game time for Friday, Dec. 29 is set for 5 p.m.
Duke is the only team BU has played in the tournament, and the Terriers fell to the Blue Devils, 73-58, on Jan. 2, 1988.
Dayton is currently 4-6 on the season, while No. 7 Duke is 9-0 and Dartmouth is 2-5.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000: Senior Katie Meinhardt is just 20 points shy becoming the 15th BU women’s basketball player to reach 1,000 points in her career and she would join former teammates Katie Terhune and Adrienne Norris in the elite club. Meinhardt began the season in 25th place and has since jumped to 15th backed by a season scoring average of 15.7. Terhune is BU’s all-time scoring leader with 1,971 career points.
NEW HEIGHTS: The Terriers are sporting their highest field goal percentage in three years. Their season average of .404 (233-577) surpasses their .400 average from 2003-04. BU is also averaging 1.1 more blocks per game (4.3 bpg) than in 2005-06.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY: Junior tri-captain Cheri Raffo has not missed a start in her three years at Boston University. The native of Asbury, N.J., has logged 2,228 minutes in her career and averages 31.4 minutes per outing. Last season, Raffo put in 1,018 minutes, which ranks fourth in the school records for minutes in a season. This year, Raffo is averaging 9.6 points per game, good for third on the team.
FROM LONG RANGE: The key to the Terriers’ success this season has been their long-range shooting. They are .337 (66-136) from behind the 3-point arc, while holding opponents to a .248 average (34-137). The Terriers have averaged higher percentages in 9-of-10 games this season and have hit more treys in 8-of-10 games. Connecticut is the only opponent all season to be more accurate from the arc.
SHE SHOOTS… SHE SCORES!: Since her freshman year, senior Katie Meinhardt has been an offensive force to be reckoned with. In 91 appearances, the senior has tallied double-digits in 42 games, including five consecutive to start this season. She has scored 20 or more points in ten games, and the Terriers have gone 8-2 in those games. One of those contests included a school-record 43 points against Stony Brook in the 2005 America East Championship first-round game.
Meinhardt is averaging 15.7 ppg – the highest in a single season for her career and needs just 20 more points to break the 1,000-point barrier.
RISING IN THE RANKS: Three players to watch this season will be senior tri-captain Katie Meinhardt, junior tri-captain Cheri Raffo and junior Kasey Devine as they rise in the school annals.
Meinhardt currently ranks 15th on BU’s all-time scoring list with 980 career point, as the senior needs just 20 points to reach the 1,000-point barrier. Her .367 career 3-point percentage is second, while her career scoring average (10.8) puts her for ninth place.
Devine and Meinhardt have excelled behind the charity stripe, garnering .767 and .762 career free throw percentages for fourth and sixth place, respectively. Devine is also eighth in career blocked shots (85).
Raffo has not missed a start in three seasons and has logged 2,228 minutes in 71 consecutive appearances. If she matches her 33.9 minutes per game from 2005-06 by the end of the season the junior will land in 10th place.
Meinhardt holds the school record for points in a game with 43. She accomplished that feat on March 9, 2005, against Stony Brook in the America East Tournament.
TERRIERS IN THE CONFERENCE: A number of Terriers currently rank in this week’s America East statistics. Five individuals have set themselves apart and climbed to the top of the statistics.
Senior Katie Meinhardt is second with an average of 15.7 points per game, while senior Erica Kovach continues to sit atop the conference in rebounding (7.4), while freshman Aly Hinton is seventh in rebounding with 6.1 rpg. Meinhardt is sixth in assists (3.00 apg) and sophomore Christine Kinneary is seventh (2.90 apg). Meinhardt is fourth in free throw percentage (.792).
The duo of freshmen Kristen Folk and Hinton rank fifth and seventh in blocked shots, as Folk has recorded 1.20 bpg, while Hinton is close behind with 1.00.
As a team, the Terriers have the second-highest scoring offense (67.2 ppg). BU is tops in blocks per game (4.30) and in 3-point field goals made (6.60).
