If the 2011-12 season for the Boston University men’s basketball season has been anything thus far, it has been a year of runs, both good and bad. But, now just over three weeks removed from a 4-11 overall record, BU is back to streaking again – this time, at just the right moment in the season.
Continuing what has been a nearly unblemished run through conference play, the Terriers (10-11, 6-1 America East) captured two more America East games last week on the road as they took down the University of New Hampshire 52-50 Thursday and routed the University of Hartford 65-46 Sunday.
The pair of wins now gives BU a season-high six-game winning streak that has it within a single game of the .500 plateau, a mark the Terriers have not seen since the Dec. 3 win over Boston College.
Playing in Lundholm Gymnasium for the first time since it scored a season-low 48 points last January, BU was engaged in a half-court, low-scoring and overall defensive battle against a Wildcats (7-11, 2-5 America East) team that thrives off such a style of play.
But while the pace of play was to its liking, New Hampshire shot itself in the proverbial foot with 23 turnovers, something that was a principal factor in its loss.
With the Terriers leading 51-42 with fewer than three minutes remaining, New Hampshire went on an 8-0 run over the next 1:16, a streak helped out by three BU turnovers.
In the final minute of regulation, trailing 51-50, the Wildcats missed a chance to take the lead as guard Jordan Bronner missed a layup with 46 seconds left. After a BU free throw that doubled the lead to 52-50 with 10 seconds left, New Hampshire forward Patrick Konan missed a 3-pointer with two seconds left that would have capped the Wildcats’ comeback with a thrilling win.
For senior guard Darryl Partin and the Terriers, any in-conference road win will suffice, regardless of the fashion in which it may come.
“Every win feels great and this definitely felt great, especially when you’re on the road because the road in college basketball is tough no matter where you’re playing and no matter who you’re playing against,” Partin, who posted a game-high 20 points, said. “You’ve got to rise to the challenge.”
With 15 turnovers to just five assists, it was far from the most aesthetically pleasing game for BU, but much like Partin, Jones is fine with any win his team can get.
“These kids played their hearts out,” Jones said. “Instead of talking about how ugly it was, it was a hard-fought win, it was a road win for us. There’s nothing ugly about it – it’s basketball.”
Just three days later, the Terriers made the quick turnaround and notched a convincing 65-46 win over a Hartford (4-15, 4-3 America East) team that had won four of its last six games going into Sunday.
In the first 20 minutes of play, the two teams combined to shoot 12-of-48 from the field and had a total of 17 turnovers.
The result of that first half was a 19-13 lead for BU.
But from the moment that the Terriers came out on the floor of Chase Family Arena after halftime, everything changed.
Spurred by 10 points from Partin and six from sophomore point guard D.J. Irving, the Terriers opened the half on a 21-6 run. In that scoring streak, BU scored more points in 6:11 than it did the entirety of the first half.
Though Jones would not elaborate as to what he told his team at halftime, the message was evidently clear, understood and properly implemented.
“We weren’t really playing our game offensively,” Jones said. “They were doing a good job of doing certain things, being physical with guys, making D.J. drive more.”
From there, the BU lead was cut to no fewer than 10 points as the team coasted to its sixth consecutive win.
Once again Partin led all scorers with 22 points, all of which came in the second half. Irving added 15 points on a nearly perfect 6-for-7 shooting day and the team showed its strength on a perceived weakness by dismantling Hartford on the glass with a 39-17 edge on rebounds.
As a team, Hartford grabbed only five more rebounds than sophomore forward Dom Morris did by himself.
With a game against a 3-24 University of Maryland-Baltimore County team at Case Gymnasium on Tuesday, the Terriers will look to continue playing their best basketball, continuing not to pay attention to the streaks that they accumulate along the way.
“People want to make a big deal about the streaks,” Jones said. “I don’t really go into streaks. We’re at the point now where we’re playing better basketball and we’ve got a chance to win games that we’re playing.”
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