Jan. 22, 2011
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BOSTON - The Boston University women’s basketball team (9-9, 6-0 AE) will welcome America East rival Hartford (6-13, 3-3 AE) to Case Gym on Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. game, which will be televised on Comcast SportsNet.
THE TERRIERS: The Terriers have stretched their winning streak to six with an 82-65 victory over Stony Brook on Jan. 20. Sophomore Chantell Alford poured in a season-high 22 points in that game to increase her season average to 14.1 ppg and take over as the BU scoring leader.
For the season, junior Alex Young continues to average 13.9 ppg – good for second on the team and fifth in the AE. Junior Caroline Stewart is the team’s leading rebounder with 8.0 rpg, and senior Kerry Cashman is bringing in 7.9 rpg. Cashman is the team’s leading shot blocker with 27 on the year.
As a team, BU is shooting .389 and .335 from behind the arc. Throughout the season, the Terriers have improved their free-throw shooting to .655.
BU VS. HARTFORD: The Terriers and Hawks have a long and storied history together and in recent years the teams have only added to it, meeting in three of the last six America East championship games. BU leads by a slim 28-27 margin in the all-time series history - including 2008-09’s thrilling 80-75 overtime victory in West Hartford, Conn.
In 2007-08, Kristi Dini's game-winning, half-court buzzer-beater lifted the Terriers over the Hawks, 62-60, in the conference opener and the Hawks responded with a 61-54 win at Chase Arena a month later. In the postseason, BU made a thrilling ride to the championship game, which included a double-overtime win against Vermont; however, the Hawks came out victorious with a 62-45 triumph to earn their fourth title.
The series began in the 1985-86 season when the Terriers rattled off 13 consecutive victories. Hartford earned its first win of the series on Feb. 2, 1991 - a 60-48 decision. The Hawks won three of the next four games before BU put together a string of four straight wins. From Jan. 4, 1996, to Jan. 21, 2001, Hartford won 10-of-11 games. The Terriers started the 2000's winning 7-of-11 contests; however, in recent history, the Hawks have become a power in the conference and taken the past 12 out of 15 meetings.
LAST TIME OUT VS. HARTFORD (Feb. 21, 2010): The women's basketball team dropped a 61-38 decision to No. 24 Hartford on Sunday afternoon at Chase Arena. Alex Young and Mo Moran reached double figures for the Terriers with 13 and 10 points, respectively, while Caroline Stewart brought down a team-high 10 boards.
Young was named BU's America East Player of the Game after netting 13 points on 6-for-15 shooting to go along with four rebounds. Moran was 4-for-14 from the field and converted on both of her free throw attempts. Stewart pulled down double-digit rebounds for the fifth time this season and for the third time in the last four games.
BU and Hartford were close in field goals and 3-pointers, as the Hawks were 17-for-49 from the field and 5-for-18 from behind the arc and the Terriers 16-for-57 from the field and 3-for-19 from the 3-point range; however, the difference was in free-throw shooting as Hartford was 22-for-27 and BU was 3-for-8.
LAST TIME OUT (STONY BROOK – Jan. 20, 2011): The women's basketball team took down Stony Brook, 82-65, on Thursday evening at Pritchard Gymnasium. Sophomore Chantell Alford scored a season-high 24 points, while junior Alex Young added 16.
The Terriers scored the most points in a game since putting up 83 on Yale back on Nov. 17. After shooting 40.7 percent from the field in the first half, BU came out energized in the second stanza and shot 60.7 percent as Alford and classmate Mo Moran netted 18 of BU's first 23 second-half points.
Alford earned America East Player of the Game honors as she shot 8-for-17 with four treys, six rebounds, five steals, and two assists. Additionally, she was 4-for-6 from the free throw line. Also reaching double figures was Young with 16 points on 4-for-11 shooting and 6-for-7 free throw shooting, Moran with 15 points, and senior Kerry Cashman with 13 points.
BU was 18-for-23 from the free throw line and ended up shooting 50.9 percent for the game from the field. The Terriers up-tempo style frustrated the Seawolves as they scored 12 points on the fastbreak, while SBU was unable to gain any momentum there.
NEXT UP: BU will continue its homestand with Binghamton in its lone game at Agganis this season. That game will also be televised on Comcast SportsNet. On Jan. 29, UNH comes to Case for a game to be shown on NESN.
DEFENSE!: The Terriers’ defense has held conference opponents to a stingy 48.2 ppg in five games this season. BU is 10th in the country for fewest PPG allowed in conference games. Temple is the nation’s leader as it allows just 40.5 ppg.
TERRIERS ON TV: BU will play in front of a television audience in four games this season. The Terriers will host three straight TV games against Hartford (Jan. 23 – Comcast), Binghamton (Jan. 26 – Comcast), and New Hampshire (Jan. 29 – NESN) before their fourth schedule TV game on Feb. 13 at Hartford (Comcast).
PINK ZONE: Today’s contest vs. Hartford is also the Terriers’ annual Pink Zone game. Each year team’s around the country host a Pink Zone game to raise awareness for breast cancer awareness. The WBCA Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The late Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, served as the catalyst for the initiative after her third reoccurrence of breast cancer in 2006. Overall, the WBCA Pink Zone has raised nearly $3.3 Million, has reached almost 2.7 Million fans, and has unified over 4,700 participants in only four years.
CASHMAN’S FREE THROW TURNAROUND: After struggling from the charity stripe for her first three seasons with a .402 career average, senior Kerry Cashman has made a marked turnaround in her senior campaign, going 39-for-54 to rank sixth in the America East with a .722 percentage. Her career percentage now stands at .509.
ALFORD SURPASSES 700 CAREER POINTS: In just her second season as a Terrier, sophomore Chantell Alford has already surpassed 700 career points and is now working on breezing past 800. She is on pace to becoming one of the most prolific scorers in program history. Her career scoring average of 14.6 ppg is the fifth-best in school history.
ALFORD’S SCORING STREAK: In 10 straight games, sophomore Chantell Alford has reached double-digit scoring. During that stretch she has averaged 17.0 ppg and earned one America East Player of the Week accolade. During that stretch, she has shot .457 from the field and .444 from behind the arc.
50/50: In two of the last three games, the Terriers have shot above 50.0 percent from the field. Against Albany on Jan. 15, the Terriers shot an efficient 50.0 percent from the field – its highest field goal percentage in nearly two years. The last time the squad shot that well was on March 19, 2009, when it hit 50.9 percent on its shot against CCSU in the WNIT first round. Just two games later, BU upped that percentage to .509, hitting 28 of its 55 attempts.
CASE CLOSED: The confines of Case Gym have proven to be a formidable home-court advantage for the Terriers throughout the last four seasons as they have won 36-of-46 contests and are 25-6 against non-conference opponents in the last three seasons at Case Gymnasium. While the Terriers’ 20-game winning streak at home vs. the AE came to an end vs. Hartford on Jan. 21, 2010, they have won an impressive 84.4 percent (28-of-33) of their home games against the conference since the 2006-07 season.
In 2007-08, BU was 11-0 overall and 8-0 in America East action, and the Terriers’ only home loss came at Agganis Arena on Nov. 17, 2007 to then-No. 16 Ohio State. It marked the first time in program history the Terriers went undefeated at Case. Last year, BU went 12-1 at home with its lone home loss coming to St. John’s on Dec. 30, 2008.
Six times, BU has lost just one home contest (2008-09, 2007-08, 1994-95, 1986-87, 1979-80, 1977-78).
