For the first 30 minutes last night, the Boston University men’s basketball team dominated the University at Albany, blowing them out of the water thanks to a virtuoso scoring performance from redshirt freshman Tyler Morris (21 points on 8-of-14 shooting). The last 10 minutes, though, was the reason BU (7-12, 4-3 America East) walked away from The Roof, 52-50, losers to the Great Danes (13-7, 6-2).
The story is beginning to get a little old for this season’s Terriers. Their excellent play through most of the game had put them in a position to get a victory that would solidify their place near the top of the top of the conference standings. It’s a story that began – against their conference, at least – against Hartford University when the Terriers blew an 18-point second-half lead and lost in double overtime and continued last week against Stony Brook University, with another overtime loss that should have been a win.
Putting those loses out of mind, the Terriers posted a solid win against the University of Baltimore-Maryland County on Sunday, giving BU momentum going into last night.
With the Terriers down, 26-21, at the half yesterday, Morris came out on fire, netting the BU’s first 12 points.
“Coming out in the second half, I just tried to pick it up as much as possible,” Morris said. “I tried to do my best to give our team a little bit of a lift since we did allow [Albany] back into the game at the end of the first half.”
“You can see why the state of Indiana has such good basketball,” said Albany coach Will Brown. “Tyler Morris is a throwback. He’s just a really good player. He was feeling it in the second half, he gave us fits.”
And the gravy train kept coming for the Terriers after that run. Freshman Carlos Strong (11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks) picked up the slack in leading-scorer Corey Lowe’s absence and Morris kept hitting jumpers. Peterkin, who found himself being immediately double-teamed in the post for one of the first times this season, dished a pair of assists under pressure, and got deep position down low to make a pair of quick right-hooks before the second defender could reach him – the second of which but BU up 48-42 with 6:07 remaining.
But 14:59 into the second half, Strong infiltrated the Albany passing lanes and broke free with the ball towards the bucket, only to get intentionally fouled from behind by Great Dane star Jamar Wilson (11 points, 8 below his average). The foul gave the Terriers two points from the line, a 50-44 lead and possession.
The Terriers still had a five-point lead after Wilson came down and hit 1-of-2 free throws. Credit Strong for immediately going back to the hole, but his attempt hit the underside of the rim and Wilson responded 10 seconds later with a five-foot floater to bring Albany within three.
BU coach Dennis Wolff’s strategy to drain shot clock on every ensuing possession backfired as BU suddenly couldn’t get what it wanted anymore on offense, and the Terriers found themselves with poor looks at the bucket, missing their next four field goals.
“Obviously we didn’t execute offensively in the last five minutes of the game. We missed a couple layups,” Wolff said. “We kind of got a little scattery, and didn’t go where we needed to go. Sometimes these things happen when you have a young team that’s really put a hell of an effort in on both ends for 35 minutes.
“We also did some things in the last four of five minutes that we hadn’t done during the course of the game,” he added. “And if we had kinda just stayed with going the way we wanted to go, we would have gotten at least two or three charges and a couple other plays like that.”
During the Terriers’ offensive struggle, Albany’s second leading scorer Jason Siggers (10, 5 assists) hit a jumper, Brian Lillis (8) banked in a layup off a pass from Jamar Wilson and the Terriers had to foul Brent Wilson (13, 6 rebounds) with seconds left in the game. Wilson hit the 1-of-2 from the line, giving Albany a two-point lead with 3.4 seconds left.
“They have more experience than we have,” Wolff said. “I think they made some harder plays at crunch time and picked up a couple loose balls. When it’s scattery, when it’s toe-to-toe for that long, they made some tougher plays.”
After a BU timeout, senior co-captain Brian Macon received the inbounds pass and, though well-defended, he weaved his way across the half-court line before putting up a running 3-point attempt that bounced off the backboard.
BU’s inability to close out halves was the difference last night. After leading 20-13 with 7:23 remaining in the first, BU backpedaled into the break on the receiving end of a 13-1 Albany run. At the end of the first half, foul trouble had forced Morris to the bench, and in the second half, the Terriers may have been affected by fatigue after Wolff’s whirlwind press-and-substitute gameplan.
“We played 10 minutes of good basketball tonight,” Brown said. “The last five minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of the game. The other thirty minutes BU outplayed us.”
The Terriers have a week off before traveling to the University of Maine next Wednesday. Last night was a missed opportunity for sure, but next Wednesday’s game will be another stepping stone in the season-long maturation process of one of the youngest teams in the nation.