Boston University coach Joe Jones may not have been there, but he is familiar with what happened last season when the BU men’s basketball team traveled to SEFCU Arena to take on the University at Albany.
In that game, the Terriers trailed the Great Danes 38-22 at halftime, but shot 56 percent from the field in the second half and stormed back to win 70-67 on Jan. 15, 2011.
Monday night in the same confines of SEFCU Arena in Albany, N.Y., the Terriers found themselves in a similar predicament, trailing the Great Danes 46-31 at halftime and then 64-49 with 11:30 remaining.
But even for Jones, who was on the sideline for Boston College last season when BU completed that comeback, there was a sense of déjà vu that spread among his players who were all-too-familiar with the situation in which they found themselves.
And even though it’s not in the best health interests of Jones and his staff, the Terriers were able to complete a nail-biting comeback against Albany, upending the host Great Danes 81-78.
“These guys have been able to bounce back and nothing seems to faze them,” Jones said. “They’re going to give the staff a heart attack, but they seem to handle these situations a lot better than me and my staff members.
“They just have a high level of confidence in each other and themselves. The experience of winning a championship and being down as many as they were in a championship game, let alone this game last year, kind of gives them confidence that they can bounce back.”
After allowing Albany to shoot 6-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half, along with being out-rebounded 22-11 by the Great Danes (15-11, 7-5 America East) in that same span, the Terriers (13-13, 9-3 America East) stuck with their opponents for the first eight minutes of the second half. However, the team could not inch any closer, as it hadn’t created a dent in Albany’s 15-point halftime edge with 11:30 remaining.
But from that point forward, BU went on a 32-14 run to win its second consecutive game.
Having already reached the status of a career night, senior guard Darryl Partin was a key component in the comeback on the same night he netted a career-high 33 points, including the 1000th of his career.
The impressiveness of Partin’s performance wasn’t so much what he did as it was how he did it, reaching his 33 points on a 12-of-17 shooting performance, the second best shooting percentage of his career in games he’s attempted more than a single shot.
The La Salle University transfer has shown a propensity to be a streaky shooter in his BU career, but on nights when he is seeing his shots fall, a long night is in store for opposing teams, a lesson Albany learned as the second half wore on.
“Once [Partin] gets in a rhythm, he’s really hard [to stop],” Jones said. “What you want to do with him is give him some opportunities where he can get some catch-and-shoots off screens.
“He didn’t have to create so much off the bounce. He got a lot of jump shots in space where he’s really good. Then he got into his rhythm and once he gets into that rhythm, he’s really tough.”
Partin reached the 1,000-point mark at BU in just 61 games and is the first BU player to accomplish the feat since injured forward Jake O’Brien did so last season.
True to form, Partin was complemented on the scoring front by sophomore point guard D.J. Irving, who added 17 points and four assists. The rest of the BU starters – senior center Patrick Hazel and sophomore forwards Dom Morris and Travis Robinson – combined to score just 11 points, but the BU bench added 20 points among five players.
After limiting star Albany guard Gerardo Suero to six points on 1-of-10 shooting in the first matchup between the two teams, BU could not control the nation’s sixth-leading scorer for a second time, as Suero led Albany with 28 points while shooting 9-of-17 from the field.
But when it mattered most, BU shut down Albany and get hot at the right time, and even though the Terriers didn’t play their best ball for most of the game, the Terriers turned things around.
“In the course of a season, these games happen,” Jones said. “You play 30 games and [sometimes] you’re not going to play so well in the first half and you’re going to play much better in the second half and hope to win. The second half came around and we played much better on both sides of the ball.”
The win was particularly important for BU as it entered the contest just a game ahead of Albany in the America East standings and a loss would have dropped them into a tie with the Great Danes for third place in the conference.
Now in sole possession of third place after facing three of the top four teams in the conference, the Terriers have a two-game home stretch against the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, two teams that have combined to go 8-14 in league play.
Nonetheless, on the heels of an important win, Jones and the Terriers are focused on getting better and hopefully catching fire at just the right time of the season.
“Right now, it’s not all about the wins and losses as much as you want to continue to gain momentum going into the last couple weeks of the season,” Jones said. “This win gets us a step closer to getting to where we want to go, but we have to learn some things from this game and be able to come out with a level of energy and commitment that’s necessary to play at a high level.
“We have a good team, we’re talented enough to be where we want to be in March, but we’re going to have to continue to grow and improve.”
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