Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
21-6, 13-4
Boston University
5-23, 2-15
Minato Leads Women's Basketball Past BU
February 25, 2015 | Women's Basketball
The Black Knights improve to 21-6 overall and 13-4 in the conference with the win, while the Terriers fall to 5-23 and 2-15.
Minato shot 9-for-15 from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point range while also adding five assists. The junior raised her career scoring total to 1,728 points and moved into second on Army's all-time scoring list with a jumper at the 18:11 mark of the second half. Minato passed Cara Enright (USMA '08), who netted 1,719 points over her career.
Sophomore Dani Failor finished with eight points and four rebounds for the hosts, while senior Ciara Jackson and junior Jean Parker also tallied eight points. Jackson's eight points come as a career high.
Boston University was paced by senior Mollie McKendrick, who finished with 15 points and four rebounds.
Army got out to an early 10-4 lead, with Minato netting a quick six points before Boston University answered with a 6-0 run that knotted the score at 12-12 after 7:46 of first-half action. The teams played to ties of 15-15 and 17-17 until freshman Kara Sheftic converted a lay-up at the 10:37 mark to give the Terriers a 19-17 advantage, their first of the contest.
The visitors went on to lead by as many as four before the Black Knights came back to force ties of 21-21 and 23-23. Jackson hit a mid-range jumper with 4:14 left in the frame to cap a 7-4 Black Knights' scoring spurt that put the hosts ahead, 30-27.
Boston University cut its deficit back to one, but Army didn't surrender the lead for the remainder of the frame, as it went into the locker room with a 35-33 advantage.
Army used a 20-1 run to start the second half, thanks to scoring contributions from six players. The Black Knights held the Terriers to 0-for-6 shooting to begin the half and didn't allow the visitors a field goal for the first 7:21 of the period.
Army went on to lead by as many as 21 and didn't allow Boston University to pull closer than 14, as the Black Knights limited the Terriers to 22.2 percent shooting in the second half after the visitors shot 54.2 in the opening frame. The hosts shot 48.1 percent on the evening, including a 50.0 percent showing in the second half alone.
“I'm proud of the way we came out in the second half,” said Army head coach Dave Magarity. “But I was really impressed with the way Boston University came out to start the game. They did a good job of taking us out of our pressure and they kept us on our heels.
“I thought we got refocused in the second half. To hold them to 22.2 percent shooting in the half was huge. I can't say enough about Dani Failor and Ciara Jackson. They shot a total of 8-for-10 from the field and Ciara's offense kept us in the game at times in the first half.”
The Black Knights return to the floor on Saturday, Feb. 28 when they host Lafayette in their regular-season finale at 3 p.m.
GAME NOTES: Army collects its fifth straight win over Boston University to improve to 5-3 all-time against the Terriers … The Black Knights pick up their sixth straight home win to move to 11-1 at Christl Arena this season … Kelsey Minato scored 26 points to reach double figures for the 76th game in a row and move into second on Army's career scoring list with 1,728 points, surpassing Cara Enright (USMA '08), who totaled 1,719 points over her career … Ciara Jackson scored a career-high eight points … Army received 21 bench points to mark its third-highest total of the season (27 vs. Bucknell, 1/18/15; 23 at Manhattan, 11/22/14) … Army improves to 15-2 this year when scoring at least 60 points and 9-1 when shooting at least 45 percent … the Black Knights will enter next week's Patriot League Tournament as the No. 2 seed after American clinched the top seed with a win Wednesday night.
