Jan. 2, 2009
Box Score
BOSTON - Senior Kristi Dini had the hot hand with a season-high 23 points and the Boston University women's basketball team hit six-of-eight free throws down the stretch to earn an 82-75 victory over Massachusetts on Friday evening at the Mullins Center. BU improves to 6-6 overall as it enters America East play on Wednesday (Jan. 7) at Stony Brook, while UMass falls to 6-7.
Dini matched a career high for 3-pointers (6) and was trey short of tying a single-game school record. Senior Jesyka Burks-Wiley added 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting and recorded her third double-double of the season with 10 boards, while classmates Christine Kinneary and Amarachi Umez-Eronini each dished out seven assists. Umez-Eronini and junior Aly Hinton also chipped in 10 points a piece.
As a team, the Terriers dished out a season-high 20 assists and reached 80 points for the third time this season. They also outscored the Minutewomen 20-12 off turnovers and 17-10 on second-chance points. In addition, BU posted 10 points on the fast break.
BU jumped out to an early 5-0 lead backed by five quick points from Dini, however, the Minutewomen came back to take the 13-10 advantage at 14:49. After reclaiming the lead on another Dini three, both squads went back-and-forth before the Terriers went up by nine, 24-15, at 11:15 on a traditional three-point play from Umez-Eronini.
Dini's hot hand gave the Terriers their largest lead of the game, 32-19, at 8:16 with her fourth trey of the game. UMass would come as close as seven points on three separate occasions and closed out the stanza with Kim Benton's last-second layup to move the score to 46-39 heading into the locker rooms.
At the break, Dini led all scorers with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting and 5-for-10 from behind the arc. Burks-Wiley also reached double-figures in the first half with 13 points, in addition to bringing down seven boards.
To begin the second half, BU opened the lead back up to 10, 53-43, on Dini's sixth 3-pointer but the Minutewomen went on an 8-0 spurt to close the gap to four, 54-52, at 14:48, before Hinton and Dini snapped the skid with back-to-back layups.
BU held UMass scoreless for nearly three minutes as it expanded its lead to 10, 64-54, at 10:40. The Minutewomen did not relent, however, as they drew to within three, 70-67, backed by an 8-0 stretch over two minutes. Burks-Wiley scored six of BU's next eight points to bring the lead back up to five, 76-71, with 45 seconds remaining in regulation.
Down the stretch the Terriers hit six-of-eight free-throw attempts to make it a three-possession and round out the scoring at 82-75.
BU will now begin its conference slate on Wednesday (Jan. 7) when it travels to Stony Brook for a 7 p.m. match-up.
