Coming off a thrilling 62-59 victory over the United States Naval Academy Wednesday, the Boston University men’s basketball team brought its momentum Monday night against Lafayette College.
BU (10-13, 6-6 Patriot League) won convincingly in a 74-60 victory over the Leopards (14-9, 6-6 Patriot League).
Lafayette was coming off three straight wins in conference play and was looking to continue its win streak against an inconsistent BU team.
However, the Terriers came out swinging as they opened with a 10-0 run. BU never looked back as it played with the lead the entire game and even led by as many as 20 points.
BU coach Joe Jones said he was happy about his team’s efforts and mindset going into the game.
“Out of the recent games, I thought we competed really well tonight,” he said. “We just competed and put together a 40-minute game and competed through out.”
BU played well in the first half, outscoring the Leopards 48-39, and kept its feet on the gas pedal in the second half by outscoring the top offense in the Patriot League 26-21.
The Leopards were the most efficient offensive team in the Patriot League entering Monday night, as they are tops in the conference in 3-point percentage (40.9 percent), field goal percentage (48 percent), assists (15.7 per game) and also outscore their opponents by a margin of 2.8 points per game.
It was the Terriers that would have the better offensive night, however, by shooting 34.5 percent from three and 51.8 percent overall.
BU had a well-balanced attack, as it had four players score in double-digits on the night. Junior guard John Papale lead all Terriers with 14 points while sophomore guard Eric Fanning and freshman guard Cheddi Mosely had 13 apiece, to go along with junior forward Nathan Dieudonne’s 10 points. BU’s leading scorer for the season, sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson, chipped in with eight while grabbing the most boards in the game at seven.
To shake things up, Jones gave freshman forward Nick Havener his first collegiate start. After the game, Jones praised the play of Havener and classmate guard Will Goff.
“He [Havener] gave us energy when we were off to a good start,” he said. “[Freshman guard] Will Goff came in with energy.”
Havener is only averaging 7.2 minutes per game for the Terriers this year, but had four points and five rebounds in 14 minutes against Lafayette. Goff played eight minutes in the matchup.
“We played well offensively, but I really want to acknowledge the players who don’t get talked about much because they gave us energy,” Jones said. “This was one of our better games because it was a collective effort.”
But the most crucial part of the game for the Terriers was limiting Lafayette’s two leading scorers under their averages. Senior Seth Hinrichs and leading scorer in the Patriot League, forward Dan Trist, were both held to a point below their season averages.
“Trist was a big part of the game plan. He’s just a really good player,” Jones said.
Even though Jones acknowledged Trist’s game, he said the Terriers were more focused on themselves and their effort as a team.
“We played with more energy,” he said. “We competed and played more competitive for rebounds, loose balls and that’s why we had the edge.”
