The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team’s late second-half comeback fell short as they lost to the Boston University Terriers 66-55 at the Convocation Center Friday.
The Eagles dropped their third straight contest after winning their opening game against Northeastern University.
Senior center India Hairston made the first basket of the game to put the Eagles up 2-0 on the Terriers.
Then, like in the previous game against the University of Detroit Mercy, the Eagles started to falter in the early stages when Boston responded and went up 8-4 with 15:27 left in the first half.
EMU called timeout and women’s basketball head coach Tory Verdi immediately went to the bench, putting in sophomore forward Amber Bogard, senior guard Taylor Bird and sophomore guard Iesha Collins in hopes of keeping players fresh.
“Our starting five has played a lot of minutes in previous games,” Verdi said. “We are trying to cut down on some minutes and hopefully rest some legs for a little bit.”
The Eagles and the Terriers exchanged baskets for the next 10 minutes, giving Boston a 28-23 advantage.
Then the Terriers went up 34-23 on back-to-back three pointers by senior Chantell Alford.
Boston added another basket as they went into the locker room up 36-23 on EMU.
Once the second half began, the Terriers increased their lead to 18 points, 41-23, forcing Verdi to call yet another timeout to keep the game from getting out of hand.
Coming out of the timeout, the Eagles and the Terriers exchanged baskets back and forth again, but EMU trailed by 20 points, 57-37.
Boston’s three-point barrage continued and the lead got as high as 21 points, 60-39.
With three minutes left, the Eagles began to put together one last surge with a full court press that resulted in turnovers and three-point shots.
Even with a 16-5 run by EMU, time ran out and they fell 11 points
short to Boston 66-55.
The Eagles where led by junior forward Olivia Fouty, who finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Hairston added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Bird also chipped in eight points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Eagles.
“Bird was a very big spark off the bench,” Verdi said. “She got us energized and we cut into their lead with her effort. It was something that was good for us to see. I hope to see the same effort against Harvard.”
EMU went 20 for 61 (32.8 percent) from the floor.
Seniors Alford and Mo Moran both led the way for the Terriers with 16 points each.
Boston junior Whitney Turner, who is from Okemos, Mich., chipped in four points, eight rebounds and a game-high five blocks.
Boston went 26 for 60 (43.3 percent) from the floor.
From the foul line, EMU made 12 of 19 free throws, while Boston converted only 5 of 11 free throws.
“The first thing we have to do is to locate shooters,” Verdi said.
“There are times on transition where the players would come down on the floor and we would not match-up. As a result, we gave up open three-point shots. We just need to do a better job of communicating, sprinting back and getting a high hand up.”
EMU is now 1-3, while Boston moves to 3-2 on the young season.
EMU lost to Harvard University 63-67 Nov. 24 to finish their five-game home stand before hitting the road for the next two weeks.
The Eagles will travel to Indianapolis Nov. 28 to face Butler University at 7 p.m.
