Men let one slip away

WORCESTER – This was a tough one to swallow, and the season is only one game old. The Boston University men’s basketball team played flawless hoops during a three-minute stretch at the College of the Holy Cross Saturday when it turned an eight-point deficit with 3:30 left in the second half into a two-point lead with 57 seconds remaining. Unfortunately for the Terriers, that flawless play ended too soon. A turnover by junior forward Rashad Bell and a foul at midcourt by sophomore guard Shaun Wynn in the final minute sealed BU’s fate in its 59-57 loss to the Crusaders at a raucous Hart Center in a game the Terriers will most likely look back upon and say they should have won. BU coach Dennis Wolff said his team was a little nervous at the start, and it showed in the first half, as the Terriers committed eight turnovers and shot 36 percent from the floor. ‘You’re anxious, you’re on the road, you want to play well, but we didn’t stay with what we had wanted to on offense,’ Wolff said after the loss. Despite the Crusaders’ 58 percent shooting in the first half, BU only trailed by three at intermission. Wynn agreed with his coach when he said the Terriers came out anxious. ‘In the first half, being that it was our first game, we had a lot jitters,’ said Wynn, who totaled six points, six rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes off the bench. ‘Second half we were just a lot more comfortable with what they were running. We were feeding off each other’s energy.’ Wynn’s value may not show in his numbers, but the sophomore guard played 19 energy-packed minutes in the second frame, active in Terrier runs of 14-3 and 10-0 at the beginning and end of the half. Sandwiched between BU’s two second-half spurts was an 18-4 Holy Cross burst that moved the Crusaders from down seven to up seven with 6:30 to play. The Terriers shot better in the second half, getting better looks off dribble penetration, but BU was just too sloppy with the ball. For the game, the Terriers had 20 turnovers and Holy Cross tallied 17 steals. But even with all of those numbers against the Terriers, a look at the scoreboard with 57 seconds left saw BU in front, 57-55. Soon after BU took the lead, Holy Cross senior guard Jave Meade scored on a driving layup to tie the game. On the ensuing Terrier possession, junior guard Chaz Carr drove the lane and looked to dump the ball off to Bell, who appeared to be open under the basket. But the ball slipped out of the junior forward’s hands and out of bounds. Meade then dribbled at center court with less than 10 seconds left and Wynn in his face. The ball popped loose, and in a scramble that would determine the game’s outcome, Wynn bumped Meade to send the senior to the line for two foul shots with five seconds to go. After Meade calmly stroked two, the Terriers, with no timeouts left, almost salvaged the win when a three-point attempt by senior guard Matt Turner bounced off the backboard and then the front rim. But, of course, close is not enough. ‘[Holy Cross] deserve[s] credit. We were down eight, then up two and it looked like we were in control. We just made a few mistakes in the last minute,’ Wolff said. Mistakes down the stretch cost BU a game it could have won to start the season on a positive note. Saturday’s game brought back memories of last year’s 61-57 opening loss at Stanford University, in which the Terriers battled hard but just didn’t have enough at the end. BU was not discouraged by that outcome, and it will try to similarly overcome Saturday’s. ‘We can’t dwell on this too long, but obviously this was a game that was within our grasp and we just didn’t make the plays we needed to,’ Wolff said. Hopefully for BU, it will remember how it played during those near-perfect three minutes rather than the final 57 seconds.