The Boston University men’s basketball team ended its best stretch of the season last night, turning a three-game winning streak into a one-game slide with a 68-62 overtime loss to Stony Brook University.
The Terriers (6-11, 3-2 America East) came into the game in second place in the conference, behind only the University of Vermont, who was undefeated at 4-0. Though a one game losing streak is surely modest in most senses, call it a slide because Vermont lost to the University of Maine last night, 69-64 — BU’s game last night can now be found under “missed opportunity” in your copy of Webster’s.
“That was extremely disappointing,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “We had a chance to put some distance between us and the league tonight.”
After allowing an SBU (7-11, 2-4) buzzer-beater from redshirt junior Ricky Lucas (his only field goal of the contest) that sent the game into overtime, the Terriers came out flat-footed in the extra period, eventually falling into a 59-51 deficit with 1:21 remaining.
“Today we [didn’t have] the right approach to the game and by the time we got to overtime we were deflated,” Wolff said.
But the ever-resilient freshmen class brought BU back to 61-58 with 0:41 remaining off a pair of Tyler Morris 3-pointers and a few Corey Lowe free throws. Fighting against the clock, the Terriers had to go into a full-court press, which SBU quickly broke, forcing senior co-captain Omari Peterkin to foul redshirt junior forward Mitchell Beauford on the fast-break. Referees questionably ruled the foul intentional, giving SBU both freebies – which Beauford hit – and possession of the ball.
With fate out of their hands, the Terriers had to foul and SBU didn’t let them have a second chance, hitting 9-of-10 from the charity stripe over the next forty seconds to seal the win.
The Terriers are now 0-4 in games that have required an extra session this season, having lost to St. John’s University, the College of the Holy Cross and recently, America East foe the University of Hartford in double OT. Some of those games slipped away from BU because of its inability to hit from the line, especially on the front-end of one-and-one’s. And while the circumstances tonight were different, it was still the freebies that made the difference.
Lowe had the chance to make it a three-point lead with 0:08 to go in regulation, but his miss on the first attempt from the charity stripe led to Lucas’s improbable tip-toeing 14-footer. Lowe also had a chance to bring BU within three in the extra-period, but again missed on his first from the line, keeping SBU two possessions ahead.
“They’ve all been different,” Wolff said of the overtime losses. “But if you’re looking for a common denominator, it was free throws.”
The missed free-throws taint an otherwise strong performance from Lowe, who connected on 9-of-11 free throws in the game, racked up 20 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal. He was joined in double figures by senior co-captain Brian Macon (12 points) who hit some clutch long balls down the stretch in regulation.
The Terriers came out slow, falling behind 21-13 with less than seven minutes to go in the first half, but they managed to close the gap to three, 28-25, going into the break. The second half was played closely the rest of the way, but it was the Terriers who were in control, 48-47, with Lowe at the line with the chance to put the game out of reach.
When Lowe made 1-of-2, the 0:08 remaining turned out to be too long. Lucas, the Seawolves’ leading scorer, averaging 15 ppg entering last night’s contest, received the ball from the sideline and drove to the top of the key after a series of fakes before pulling up from 14-feet. His shot bounced once, then twice and finally dropped in at the buzzer, tying the game at 49.
“We needed to do a better job staying between him and the basket,” Wolff said. “This was one of the few times this year that everyone wasn’t into it.”
While credit should not be taken from the Seawolves, who put plenty of points on the board on a night when their leading scorer was held to just six, it was the Terriers who wound up shooting themselves in the foot. In the first half alone, the Terriers had 14 turnovers, which SBU converted for 11 points.
“It was unreal what we were doing with the ball,” Wolff said. “If we had won the game, we wouldn’t have deserved to win the game.”
Despite their troubles taking care of the ball in the opening frame, the Terriers saved themselves by hitting all seven of their first-half free-throws, which haven’t always been gimmies this season. And even though BU committed just six turnovers in the second half, SBU was able to convert those into nine points.
Beauford had 18 points off the bench for the Seawolves, and Solomon Bamiro also contributed as part of the second unit, chipping in 15 of his own.
“The guys that scored, scored by out-hustling us,” Wolff said.
The Terriers now sit at third in the conference standing — behind Vermont (4-1) and Albany (4-2) – destined to be in a dogfight for a top spot the rest of the year, and they will try to rebound from last night’s loss this Sunday at Case Gymnasium against the University of Maryland Baltimore-County.