The last three games between the Boston University men’s basketball team and Hartford University have been decided by a total of six points.
Tomorrow’s contest at Case Gymnasium promises to provide another down-to-the-wire finish, as both the Terriers (14-8, 9-2 America East) and the Hawks (11-11, 6-5 America East) look to rebound from their worst losses in conference play.
BU is coming off a 73-67 loss to Stony Brook University, while Hartford dropped an embarrassing 72-61 decision to the University of New Hampshire, which was previously 1-10 in conference play.
For the Terriers to rediscover their winning ways, they will have to regain their trademark stingy defense, which they apparently forgot to bring to New York for its games against Stony Brook and Binghamton University.
‘The defense [against Stony Brook] was awful,’ head coach Dennis Wolff said. ‘We didn’t play with nearly the energy we’ve played with in the majority of games.
‘I would hope that we get back to making teams earn their points better than in the last two games, because I didn’t think our defense was great against Binghamton either.’
The Terriers were able to overcome their defensive woes against Binghamton, as they shot a blistering 13-22 from three-point range. Against Stony Brook, they shot only five-17 and dropped their second conference game.
‘[The defense] is definitely something that’s correctable,’ said junior forward Ryan Butt. ‘We just have to work a little bit harder [in practice] and improve on it.’
BU cannot expect to make 13 threes against Hartford, one of the tougher defensive teams in the league.
‘They’re a tough, scrappy, hard-nosed defensive team,’ Butt said. ‘Every time we play them, they come ready to play.’
‘[Hartford’s] a team we’ll have no trouble getting up for,’ Wolff said. ‘We respect them, they’re a good team and we’ve had hard-fought battles with them.
‘We know it’ll be a good game.’
Once again, the Terriers will focus their defensive energies on stopping junior guard Jerell Parker, who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, in BU’s 59-58 victory.
Parker is the Hawks leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, and is averaging more than 16 a game in America East play.
The Terriers will look to Butt and sophomore forward Rashad Bell to continue their strong play inside. The pair combined for 35 points in the losing cause against Stony Brook.
Butt in particular has improved his play recently, scoring in double figures in four straight and has tallied 18 in each of the past two.
‘I think Ryan’s been an underrated player,’ Wolff said. ‘He’s an extremely skilled bigger kid, he’s competitive, and he’s feeling really comfortable in the way he’s playing now.’
BU is now entering the last five games of its conference schedule and it is trying to procure the top seed for the conference tournament. It currently holds a one game lead over the University of Vermont (8-3 America East).
‘It’s going to be an important game for us to stay in first place,’ Butt said.
Following Saturday’s contest, the Terriers host the University of Maine before traveling to Vermont to face the Catamounts in a game that could decide the conference regular season championship.
After playing two games in three days on the road, the Terriers are home and rested, ready to find their defense and forget about Tuesday’s game.
If they don’t, they could find themselves in danger of losing the conference’s top seed after it looked like they had a comfortable grasp on the regular season title.