Cornell pulls away late from men’s basketball

In many respects, the Boston University men’s basketball team took a step forward in its third game under new head coach Joe Jones.

For the second consecutive game, the Terriers out-rebounded their opponent, shot well from the free throw line and saw nearly four of their players score in double figures.

Yet, at the end, BU fell short of its first win of the season as Cornell University withstood a second half rally to hold on for a 71-66 win Sunday in Ithaca, N.Y.

The loss to the Big Red (2-2) drops the Terriers to 0-3 on the season.

After opening the game on a 7-0 run in the first minute and a half of play, BU quickly fell victim to a scoring barrage from Cornell over the next seven minutes as the Big Red put up 20 unanswered points, including three consecutive 3-pointers from guard Drew Ferry.

The streak was also aided largely by the Terriers’ own mistakes, as they turned the ball over on four straight possessions which, in turn, resulted in nine points from Cornell.

“We turned the ball over and then that got them in transition and made some transition plays and that’s what they’re really good at,” Jones said in a phone interview.

Behind that run, Cornell was able to go into halftime with a 35-24 lead, aided largely by 12 BU turnovers, something that Jones said “really hurt us.”

In the second half, despite closing the deficit to as few as three points at 42-39 with 14 minutes remaining, BU saw Cornell extend the lead back to 13 behind a 10-0 run.

Over the next five minutes, though, the Terriers stormed back to get within a single point at 56-55 with just less than six minutes remaining after a free throw from senior guard Darryl Partin.

To get back into the game, according to Jones, it really came down to the team not making the same mistakes that burdened it so much in the first half.

“We had more good possessions,” Jones said. “We played our best ball in the second half – we got good shots, we played inside-out, we were getting the ball at the rim and [playing] inside more.”

Down 62-61with 3:17 remaining in regulation, sophomore forward Dom Morris stole the ball from Cornell forward Eitan Chemerinski, but on the next two possessions, the Terriers failed to capitalize and take the lead as Partin missed a jumper and sophomore point guard D.J. Irving turned the ball over on consecutive trips down the court.

With another chance to capture the lead, this time with less than a minute and a half remaining in the game, Irving missed an open 3-point attempt.

On Cornell’s following possession with 54 seconds left, guard Galal Cancer made a layup that gave the Big Red a lead they would hold for the remainder of the game. Partin missed a 3-pointer on the Terriers’ next possession in an attempt to even the game and Cornell responded by going on a 7-5 run to end the game, a run in which BU never got closer than four points.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” Jones said of his team’s multiple second-half comebacks.

Partin led all scorers with 29 points and two other Terriers scored in double figures as Irving and senior forward/center Patrick Hazel got 10 points apiece. Irving put up a game-high eight assists, a mark that fell just short of his career-high of 10.

Even in a losing effort, BU managed to out-rebound its opponent for the second time this season as it beat the Big Red on the glass 32-29, including 14 alone from Morris, a career-high.

Though four of the Terriers’ five starters scored at least nine points in the loss, their bench was out-scored by a resounding 35-5 margin.

“We’ve really got to focus in on that because it’s a good group there and we’ve just got to do a better job of getting more out of them,” Jones said.

Still in search of their first win of the season, the Terriers will get five days off before they continue play in the Ticket City Legends Classic against Cleveland State University Friday in Kingston, R.I.

The Vikings entered the season as one of the prohibitive favorites in the Horizon League and have already showcased themselves to the nation as they upset then-No. 7 Vanderbilt University on the road 71-58.

Jones noted that he hasn’t viewed any film yet on his team’s next opponent, but for now, he is just focused on getting his team better and more adjusted to a new style of play.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys and a lot of guys that are playing for their second or third coach,” he said.  “It’s going to take some time for it to all fall together and we’re trying to speed the process up and figure out what we have to do with this team in order to be successful.”