The Terriers are streaking again. But this time, they’re streaking the wrong way.
Kevin Gardner scored 23 of his career-high 26 points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome another woeful shooting performance, as the BU men’s basketball team lost to the University of New Hampshire, 63-54, last night in Durham.
BU finished the game shooting 31.5 percent from the field, marking it the fourth time in the past five games the team has been held under 40 percent. Worse, the team was a season-low 9.5 percent from 3-point range, throwing up 21 treys and connecting on only two.
“We are not shooting the ball well right now, so that’s what our biggest concern is,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “Until we start to shoot the ball better from the perimeter we’re not going to win games, it’s as simple as that.
Despite their shooting woes the Terriers (8-13, 5-5 America East) had a chance late, closing to within four points of the Wildcats (8-13, 5-5 America East) with just under three and a half minutes to go. But two straight 3-point plays by Blagoj Janev and Jamaal Caterina pushed the deficit back to 10, a margin from which BU could not recover.
Janev led UNH with 22 points in the game, helped in large part by blazing 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. The junior center was one of three Wildcats in double figures, with Mike Christensen scoring 13 and Chris Vetrano chipping in with 10 off the bench.
Yet the Terriers’ troubles began long before the end of the game. UNH came out firing right from the opening tip, attempting six straight 3-pointers to start the contest and connecting on four of them. BU, meanwhile, failed to score until over four minutes had passed, marking the third straight half that the Terriers have begun empty from the field.
“We didn’t play with a lot of energy in the first half,” said Wolff. “We were running uphill the entire game, and every time we came close we made a mistake.”
The lack of energy showed, as BU put together one of its worst offensive halves of the season. Scoring only 17 points in 20 minutes, the Terriers connected on just six of 27 shots, including a dismal 1-for-12 from outside.
Gardner did his best to buoy the team in the second half, taking command of the game with his 23-point outburst. But his third straight double-double was once again not enough to save the Terriers, who have lost two straight despite two of the best games of their senior co-captain’s career.
“He played very hard,” said Wolff, who was not surprised that the dominating effort was not enough by itself. “We’re going to need everybody to try to match the energy he’s bringing.”
Freshman Corey Hassan ended his personal scoring drought by chipping in with 12 for the Terriers, but the swingman needed 14 shots to do it and still went just 1-for-10 from beyond the arc.
Take Gardner’s stat line out of the picture, and the rest of the Terriers shot only 18.5 percent from the field as a team.
Aside from once again showcasing BU’s offensive struggles, the loss eliminated any margin of error the Terriers had left in their conference schedule. The team is now tied for fourth place in the America East with only six games to go, meaning any loss could be a major blow to the club’s conference tournament seeding. And with three of its remaining games against the University at Albany, Binghamton University and the University of Vermont – the top three teams in the conference – BU will need to bounce back quickly.
Regardless, Wolff is not worried about his team’s place in the league at season’s end, reiterating his stance that the America East is quite evenly matched from top to bottom.
“I don’t think finishing second or fifth is going to make a difference once you get to the conference tournament,” Wolff said. “In this league, everyone’s the same. This was a road game. We didn’t play well, but we can go out and win the next one.”
That next chance will come this Saturday, when BU travels to New York to take on the America East-leading University at Albany. The Terriers dropped their first contest this year to the Great Danes 53-47.
