Terriers Travel Cross Town to Face Rival Harvard Tuesday
December 7, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2007
BOSTON - The Boston University women's basketball team will return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 11 when it travels to Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion for a 7:00 p.m. contest with the Crimson. BU enters with a 6-3 overall record, while Harvard is 4-4 overall.
BU is coming off a 59-38 victory at Brown on Wednesday evening. Senior Kasey Devine posted her first double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Terriers overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to earn the come-from-behind win. A 21-4 run midway through the second half gave BU a commanding 21-point advantage with 2:11 to go in the game. BU was 20-for-23 from the charity stripe, out-rebounded the Bears, 45-40, and converted on 17 second-chance points.
Junior Jesyka Burks-Wiley continues to lead the offense with 14.0 ppg and 7.3 rpg. Devine is close behind with 12.8 ppg, while senior Cheri Raffo is also averaging double figures with 10.6 ppg. Junior Christine Kinneary ranks 11th nationally in assists per game (7.1), while sophomore Aly Hinton is ninth with a .960 free throw percentage - a percentage she improved with a 4-for-4 performance at Brown.
As a team, the Terriers have outscored their opponents by 7.2 points per game, while averaging 70.2 ppg and 38.9 rpg. The squad is an impressive .831 from the free-throw line - good for fourth in the nation.
Harvard is currently 4-4 overall and has one game on Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire before facing off with the Terriers. The Crimson has picked up wins over Siena, Maine, Hofstra and Jackson State but most recently lost to Providence, 78-64, at home. Harvard is 1-4 when it is out-rebounded and 3-0 when it out-rebounds its opponent. Offensively, the Crimson has had five different players led the team in scoring in a game - Jessica Knox, Emily Tay, Lindsay Hallion, Katie Rollins and Niki Finelli.
Harvard features three players averaging double figures - Hallion (11.8 ppg), Finelli (10.8 ppg) and Tay (10.1 ppg). Finelli also leads the squad with 4.9 rpg.
The rivalry between BU and Harvard has remained close with BU leading by a slim 12-10 margin in the 29-year-old series. The two teams played from 1976-77 to 1980-81 consecutively and twice from 1986-88 before the rivalry began to be contested annually since the 1992-93 season. The Terriers are 5-5 at home, 5-4 on the road and 2-1 at neutral sites against Harvard. The Terriers' biggest win came in 1979-80 at Lavietes Pavilion when BU defeated Harvard by 39 points (88-49). Harvard's biggest victory was also by more than 30 points, as the Crimson held the Terriers to just 49 points in an 83-49 decision at Case Gym in 1993-94. Harvard's longest win streak in the series is three games, from 1987-88 to 1993-94, while BU's is five games (1977-78 to 1986-87). The Terriers currently are riding a three-game winning streak - all games won with head coach Kelly Greenberg at the helm.
