Following an embarrassing home loss to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on Jan. 22, Boston University men’s basketball coach Dennis Wolff’s first words in the post-game press conference were “men against boys.”
In that 22-point demolition, the Terriers had trouble scoring, defending and weren’t anywhere close to being physical enough to compete with a top team in the conference such as the Retrievers.
Less than a month later, after an adrenaline-pumping 59-58 victory over the University of Vermont — formerly the second-place team in America East — Wolff’s verbal 360 has run its course. Vermont senior Mike Trimboli’s last-second jumper glided off the rim, and BU escaped Patrick Gymnasium with its first one-point victory since Dec. 30, 2003.
“We showed we wanted to fight through everything and we made a lot of very man-like plays tonight,” Wolff said.
The biggest of those plays was by sophomore guard Corey Lowe. Vermont’s Joey Accaoui hit a 3-pointer with 1:43 remaining in the second half that punctuated a 17-8 run that trimmed BU’s advantage to two points after the Terriers had opened up a 14-point lead midway through the frame.
On the resulting inbound play, point guard Marques Johnson got the ball to co-captain Matt Wolff, who was forced to set his feet and hesitated slightly before throwing a two-handed overhead one-bouncer to the top of the opposite key. Lowe ran onto the pass and UVM’s Kyle Cieplicki was the lone trailer. Once Lowe was airborne, Cieplicki jumped and connected with a hard right forearm across Lowe’s arms and face. The shot still fell and Cieplicki (10 points) was called for an intentional foul.
Lowe converted the and-1 as well as the free throw for the intentional, which were the last points the Terriers (10-14, 7-5 AE) scored for the remaining 1:30. Yet it was enough to stave off a ferocious Vermont (12-12, 7-5) comeback, fueled by a fresh-off-the-bench trey from Colin McIntosh and two free throws by conference-leading scorer Marqus Blakely (21 points, 12 rebounds).
Before Accaoui’s 3, Wolff completed the second of three pivotal plays for the Terriers down the stretch. Freshman John Holland (12 points, six rebounds, three steals, two dunks) blocked an attempt by Trimboli from behind to get BU into its offensive set. With time running down on the shot clock, Wolff drove toward Catamount defenders Blakely and Timothy McCrory.
Earlier in the season, this was a time when Wolff would have dished out of the paint to avoid the interaction, but last night he picked up his dribble, drew hard contact from McCrory — which also happened to be his fifth personal foul — and converted the difficult right-handed layup. Though he missed the and-1, it was a crucial play in not only the overall game, but the development of Wolff’s skill set over the last few weeks.
The redshirt junior finished with nine points — including a trey early in the second half that put BU up by 11 and forced Vermont to call a timeout — five rebounds, three assists, two steals and no turnovers in one of his most complete games to date.
The third key drive was by Johnson after a timeout in response to a 5-0 run by Vermont. Two of the junior’s four points extended the Terriers’ lead back to six on a beautiful take to the basket in which he split two defenders and laid it off-glass on the right side.
Those types of plays and individual efforts weren’t happening for BU earlier in the season, but now, in the midst of their longest winning streak since 2005, the Terriers are showing a grit and determination on offense that didn’t previously exist.
More important than isolated scoring opportunities, the ability to make the extra pass has triggered BU’s newfound scoring efficiency. Nine of the Terriers’ 10 first-half baskets had an assist tacked onto them. And even when a proven scorer like Lowe has a subpar shooting night (13 points on 5-of-16, 1-of-6 from beyond the arc), he finds ways to impact the offense by dishing to teammates or penetrating the lane — something he hadn’t done much in the first half of the season.
“You’re not going to shoot a high-percentage every night, but you just have to keep trying to play hard and make good plays, and I thought he did that again tonight,” Wolff said.
Defensively, the turnaround has been just as dramatic. In four of five games during the winning streak, BU has held its opponents to a shooting percentage below .40 from the field. Against Vermont, an effective man-to-man half court defense dominated Wolff’s scheme for the majority of the game. The Terriers collected seven steals in the first 10 minutes and opened a four-point lead at the half as a result.
Sophomore Scott Brittain played extremely physical in the post for the second time this year against Vermont — specifically Blakely — and benefited from it. The 6-foot-9 forward was the team’s leading scorer with 16, 12 of which came from the charity stripe. Brittain’s propensity to go strong to the rim allowed him to get to the line and create offense on a night when he didn’t have his finishing touch (2-of-7 from the field, including a one-handed dunk).
“We wanted to get him inside,” Wolff said. “I’m still telling Scott that he has a lot more moves he could use in the lane. We want to put the ball in to him and he has to be aggressive trying to make moves.”
The victory pulled BU even with the Catamounts for fourth place in the conference, with a crack at the league’s top team (UMBC) coming up on Sunday. And if recent outings are any indication, the Retrievers will see just how quickly these Terriers have come of age in a mere three weeks.
“It’s like anything else, if you have some success guys will start believing in each other,” Wolff said. “For this young group, this was a very important road win.”
Game Notes: Sophomore guard Carlos Strong did not play for the second straight game, and is listed as week-to-week with a meniscus tear in his left knee. . . . Holland recorded his third consecutive double-digit point total. It was also his eighth in his last 10 games. . . . Blakely has recorded seven consecutive double-doubles . . . The Terriers are 9-1 this season when leading at the half.
