Women’s B-ball Tops UMass 82-75

Senior Kristi Dini had the hot hand witha season-high 23 points and the Boston University women’s basketballteam hit six-of-eight free throws down the stretch to earn an 82-75victory over Massachusetts on Friday, January 2 at the Mullins Center. BUimproves 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 oftying a single-game school record. Senior Jesyka Burks-Wiley added 21points on 8-for-13 shooting and recorded her third double-double of theseason with 10 boards, while classmates Christine Kinneary and AmarachiUmez-Eronini each dished out seven assists. Umez-Eronini and junior AlyHinton also chipped in 10 points a piece.

As a team, the Terriers dished out a season-high 20 assists andreached 80 points for the third time this season. They also outscoredthe 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 fromDini, however, the Minutewomen came back to take the 13-10 advantage at14:49. After reclaiming the lead on another Dini three, both squadswent back-and-forth before the Terriers went up by nine, 24-15, at11:15 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 asclose as seven points on three separate occasions and closed out thestanza with Kim Benton’s last-second layup to move the score to 46-39heading into the locker rooms.

At the break, Dini led all scorers with 18 points on 6-for-11 shootingand 5-for-10 from behind the arc. Burks-Wiley also reacheddouble-figures in the first half with 13 points, in addition tobringing 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 toclose the gap to four, 54-52, at 14:48, before Hinton and Dini snappedthe skid with back-to-back layups.

BU held UMass scoreless for nearly three minutes as it expanded itslead 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 twominutes. Burks-Wiley scored six of BU’s next eight points to bring thelead back up to five, 76-71, with 45 seconds remaining in regulation.

Down the stretch the Terriers hit six-of-eight free-throw attemptsto 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.

Men’s Basketball Falls to Holy Cross, 68-49
Freshman Jake O’Brien leads BU with 16 points

With four players scoring indouble-figures, Holy Cross used a 19-5 run early in the second half topush a five-point lead to 19 en route to a 68-49 victory over theBoston University men’s basketball team on Friday night in AgganisArena. With the loss, the Terriers drop to 5-7, while the Crusadersimprove to 5-9 on the season.

BU’s freshmen Jake O’Brien and Jeff Pelage were the starcontributors as they combined for 25 points and eight rebounds. NamedAmerica East player of the game, O’Brien led the Terriers with 16points, while Pelage had a career-high nine points and team-high fiverebounds after playing a career-high 25 minutes. Matt Wolff had aseason-best five assists, while John Holland recorded a season-highfive steals.

Holy Cross was led by Andrew Beinert, who had 18 points off 7-of-9shooting, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Forward Andrew Keistercontributed a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Otherdouble-figure scorers included Colin Cunningham with 15 and R.J. Evanswith 12. They helped give Holy Cross its sixth-straight victory over BUand also pushed the all-time series lead to 51-12.

The Crusaders started the new year with a 17-5 run that was cappedby Evans at 12:29 on a fastbreak layup after he created a turnover. TheTerriers cut the deficit to seven twice in the first half but weretrailing 29-20 when Evans missed a 3-pointer with nine secondsremaining to possibly push the lead to double-digits. Tyler Morrisquickly advanced the ball up the court and was fouled while attemptinga shot with a little more than a second remaining. He drained bothattempts from the charity stripe, as Holy Cross entered the locker roomahead, 29-22.

At the half, HC hit 11-of-25 shots (44%) but was only 5-of-10 from theline, allowing a BU squad that was 1-of-7 from 3-point land to remainclose in the contest. Both teams had nine turnovers.

To begin the second half, Holland went for a fastbreak layup off asteal by Lowe but was fouled at 19:19. He flushed both free throws tocut the lead to five, but the Crusaders quickly responded with a 10-0run that began with a 3-pointer by Einert and ended with a layup byEvans at 16:26.

Trailing 48-29, O’Brien scored the next eight points off one jumperand two treys, and Lowe followed with a layup to cut the deficit tonine with 10:25 remaining at 48-39. However, Beinert immediatelyresponded with a trey, and Holy Cross’ lead never went below 12 therest of the game. The squad hit 13-of-19 field goals for a blistering68.4 percent in the second stanza to prevent any chance of a BU rally.

The Crusaders won the battle of the boards, 33-20, but committed 20turnovers against BU’s 17. They finished at 54.5 percent from thefield, while BU ended the game at 37.2 percent, including 3-of-17 fromthe 3-point line, though the team did make 14-of-17 free throw attempts.

Up next for BU is the beginning of the conference slate, as theTerriers pay a visit to Albany on Thursday (Jan. 8) with tip-off setfor 7 p.m.

Tickets for Terrier women’s basketball are available in advance of the game at the Agganis Arena Ticket Office at 925 Commonwealth Ave. or online at AgganisArena.com. On game days, the Walter Brown Ticket Office, located at 285 Babcock St. in the Case Gymnasium, opens one hour prior to the game. Faculty and Staff discounted tickets are available through the Ticket Office or by calling 617-353-GOBU. For more information visit AgganisArena.com.