Jan. 31, 2008

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BOSTON - The Boston University women's basketball team will host Vermont on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 1:00 p.m. The Terriers are coming off a 72-62 come-from-behind win over UMBC, while the Catamounts are riding a four-game win streak into Saturday's contest. BU is 11-8 overall and 4-2 in America East action, while UVM is 14-5 overall and 5-1 in league play.

The Terriers and Catamounts have met a combined 57 times. It is tied for the second-oldest series in BU's program history with UNH, and behind only Maine (61 contests). BU leads the series, 30-27, and has won five of the last seven contests. The series began on Nov. 29, 1978 in a 75-53 BU victory. The Terriers rattled off 16 straight wins in the series - going undefeated in the 1980s - before succumbing to Vermont for the first time on Feb. 3, 1990 by a 66-52 margin. The Catamounts made it two in a row with a victory on Jan. 19, 1991, 71-67, before the Terriers split the season series that year with a 54-53 decision. Vermont strung together six consecutive victories from Jan. 18, 1992 to Jan. 15, 1994. During the mid-1990s both teams traded wins, however, on March 3, 1996, Vermont began a streak of 15 consecutive wins that would be its longest in the series history. Since then the Terriers have won nine of the last 11 games to the Catamounts. In 2006-07, the teams split the season series.

Vermont enters Saturday's showdown riding a four-game win streak and a recent 82-62 victory over Maine a week ago. The Catamounts have won six of their last seven games with their only conference loss coming to Hartford on Jan. 13. Sophomore guard Courtnay Pilypaitis is this week's reigning America East Player of the Week after averaging 20.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 4.0 apg in two games. At the end of last season, she was a unanimous choice for AE Rookie of the Year, and this year she has picked up where she left off, averaging 18.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 5.3 apg in league play.

The Catamounts are out-scoring their opponents by a 7.7 margin and are leading the conference in field goal percentage (.412), rebounding margin (+1.9), assists (16.21 apg), while standing in second in assist/turnover ratio (1.10) behind the Terriers.

For the Terriers, junior Jesyka Burks-Wiley is averaging 15.1 ppg and 6.9 rpg, while shooting .433 from the field and .806 from the free throw line. The Kansas City, Mo., native has tallied double digits in 17-of-19 games including 10 straight. Junior Christine Kinneary is fifth nationally in assists (7.2 pg) and assist/turnover ratio (2.49). The Terriers are ranked in the top 15 nationally in three different categories - turnovers per game (12th, 14.1), assist/turnover ratio (13th, 1.09) and free throw percentage (14th, .770).

BU is coming off its largest comeback of the season, overcoming a 19-point first-half deficit to defeat UMBC, 72-62, on Wednesday evening, as sophomore Aly Hinton and junior Amarachi Umez-Eronini each recorded double-doubles. Umez-Eronini brought down a career-high 16 rebounds and tallied 13 points, while Hinton poured in a game-high 23 points to go along with 14 boards. BU dominated on the glass, out-rebounding UMBC, 50-29, and collected 27 offensive boards. The Terriers scored 24 second-chance points, while holding the Retrievers to six. BU also took advantage of 16 UMBC miscues to score 23 points off turnovers. En route to her career-high 16 boards, Umez-Eronini collected five crucial offensive rebounds in the second half and scored four second-chance points in that frame, which brought the Terriers to within three points with 12:28 to go.

Following Saturday's game BU will travel to Albany, N.Y., where it will face the Great Danes on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 1:00 p.m. The contest will be aired on TW3, a Time Warner affiliate in Albany.