Men’s basketball routes Retrievers

The Boston University men’s basketball team flexed its muscles and took it to the visiting opposition Tuesday, reminding everyone at Case Gymnasium why it was tabbed as the preseason favorite to capture the conference title.

BU (11-11, 7-1 America East) gave the University of Maryland-Baltimore County an 83-48 shellacking on “BUnited to Help Cure Breast Cancer” night.

Senior guard Darryl Partin scored 17 points to lead the Terriers, sophomore forward Travis Robinson recorded 10 points and six rebounds and redshirt freshman Malik Thomas chipped in nine points for BU, which now sits atop the America East standings after its seventh win in a row.

Despite BU converting on 50 percent of its field goal attempts, receiving 33 points from its bench and limiting UMBC (3-17, 2-6 America East) to 30.9 percent shooting overall, BU coach Joe Jones wasn’t ready to label Tuesday’s performance as his team’s most complete game of the 2011-12 campaign.

“I don’t know if I would say that,” Jones said. “I think because of the margin of victory, other guys had a chance to play and they played well. But I thought the [University at] Albany game we really did a great job. I thought the Stony Brook [University] game at home was a great win. I don’t know if [Tuesday’s win is] any better than those games.”

Partin and Robinson combined to score 14 of their team’s first 18 points of the game, and as a result, the Terriers quickly jumped out to an 18-9 advantage at the 8:42 mark. The team never looked back from there.

Sophomore forward Dom Morris, senior center Patrick Hazel, sophomore guard D.J. Irving, senior guard Matt Griffin and freshman guard Zach Chionuma all netted points in the opening frame, as BU rolled into the intermission with a comfortable 39-22 lead.

“One of the keys of the game was just to come out and get better,” Robinson, who tallied all of his 10 points in the first half, said. “We know UMBC is not one of the better teams in the league, but we take it just like we’re playing Stony Brook or Vermont. It’s just the next game on the schedule.

“We just wanted to get out and play the best basketball that we can. We had to jump out on them and make our statement.”

Known as a second-half player for stretches during this seven-game winning streak, Partin scored eight points and attempted just four shots, making two of them, in the final 20 minutes of regulation.

For Partin, who entered the matchup averaging 17 points per game in the second half, he didn’t have to resemble the America East Player of the Year candidate he’s become.

“We depend on Darryl a lot,” Robinson said. “But I guess he didn’t really have to today because everyone pretty much chipped in today. He didn’t have to be the dominant player that he usually is in the second half.”

BU stretched its cushion to as many as 37 points in the second half of a game that rapidly became an embarrassing defeat for UMBC.

Sophomore guard Mike Terry Jr. threw down a left-handed slam that served as the proverbial exclamation point of the blowout win. Twelve players made it onto the floor for BU, all but one of whom scored, and redshirt freshman Mat Piotrowski sunk two free throws for the first two points of his collegiate career.

Jones likes what he’s seeing from his team, which reached the .500 mark for the first time since early December.

“We have some guys who really like to compete, even in practice when we’re playing,” Jones said. “If I take guys out and I want to rest them, they want to go onto the scout team and play. They just always wanna be playing.”