Boston College Athletics
Women's Basketball Set for Home Debut Thursday
November 19, 2014 | Women's Basketball
PREVIEW: Women's Basketball set to host Boston University
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Erik Johnson is excited for his team to play in front of Eagles fans on Thursday night when the team hosts Commonwealth Avenue rivals Boston University at 7 p.m. (Watch FREE Live Stream on All-Access)
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After opening the 2014-15 season more than 3,000 miles away in the San Francisco area last weekend, the Boston College women's basketball head coach is happy to play in the familiar confines of Conte Forum tomorrow.
"We're so happy to be back," Johnson said. "It was a great trip to the West Coast - San Francisco was beautiful, Stanford, the atmosphere was great - but it's nothing like playing in front of your home fans, in Boston, in Conte Forum. Our kids are fired up to be here and we hope we'll show them some good stuff."
The Eagles (1-1) returned from the Bay Area with one win (an 82-72, come-from-behind victory at St. Mary's on Sunday) and one loss (a 93-63 loss at sixth-ranked Stanford on Friday). But both games were great learning and growing opportunities for a young BC squad.
Both nights, Johnson started lineups that included at least three underclassmen: three at Stanford (freshman forward Martina Mosetti, freshman center Katie Quandt and sophomore guard Kelly Hughes) and four at St. Mary's (sophomore forward Emilee Daley, freshman guard Ashley Kelsick, Quandt and Hughes).
And the youthful group stayed with the Cardinal - who rose to the nation's number-one ranking following the weekend's play - through the first half before ultimately falling. However, two nights later the Eagles showed maturity and confidence in overcoming a 13-point, second-half deficit to defeat the Gaels by 10.
"We saw a lot of youth, a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of talent, but still a lot of mistakes," Johnson said. "Our job is to clean things up, to continue with all the great things that are happening with this team, but be able to reduce the bad things that are happening and some of the mistakes."
So Thursday's homecoming against Boston University (1-1) will be a chance for Johnson's group to build on the weekend's results in California and reinforce the foundation laid as the team heads into a holiday stretch that sees the team play four games in 10 days between Thursday and November 29.
"We can shoot the ball. There's no question," Johnson said. "We made 20 threes on the weekend. We saw some really good post play from Karima Gabriel, from Alexa Coulome. From Katie Quand, we have an inside game. We saw Ashley Kelsick, Martina Mosetti get out there and get to the basket and make some good things happen for us. So again, just being able to put all of that together, I think is our biggest task right now ... Thursday we need to be able to take another step."
