Second half the key in win over UMBC

If Thursday’s game against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County was a tale of two halves, consider the Boston University men’s basketball team an even .500.

The Terriers (18-4, 12-1 America East) escaped with a win at Case Gymnasium despite trailing by seven points at halftime and allowing UMBC (7-15, 4-9) to close a 10-point lead to just one with less than five minutes to play.

The 71-59 final score was not indicative of the gritty, seesaw battle, but BU coach Dennis Wolff said his team showed its true character in the final 20 minutes.

“I think we got a real false sense of the way the game started and didn’t respect how hard they were going to play,” Wolff said. “That being said, I don’t think we can play much better than we played in the second half.”

In the second meeting of the season between the two schools, BU jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first 4:15, but UMBC quickly rebounded to take a 24-12 lead on a 14-2 run midway through the half. Going 4-4 from behind the arc and building leads of 12 on two occasions, the Retrievers shot 52 percent (13-25) to take a seven-point lead into the break.

Senior guard Kareem Washington led all scorers with 12 after 20 minutes, while guards Shaun Wynn and Chaz Carr tallied seven apiece for BU.

But in the second frame, BU stepped up its play, pestering UMBC into turnovers in transition and pounding the ball inside for layups and subsequent free throws.

“That had been what we wanted to do in the first half except that our post players were getting pushed off the block and they ended up posting up in the corner,” Wolff said. “We told them at halftime that if we were going to be effective offensively, we needed to be operating at the beginning closer to the basket.”

UMBC committed nine turnovers in the second half, while BU turned a 33-26 halftime deficit into a 10-point lead at 53-43. After the Retrievers cut it to 53-52, the Terriers converted on three straight possessions to go up by nine with 3:39 left. Senior forward Ryan Butt made a baseline jumper, and senior forward Matt Turner and Butt each made three-pointers forcing UMBC to call a timeout.

Junior guard Rob Gogerty made a trey from the right baseline out of the timeout to cut the BU edge to six, but UMBC would get no closer. In all, BU outscored its opponent 18-7 in the final 4:52, improving its record to 12-1 in the conference. More than 750 fans witnessed the Terriers win their seventh in a row on Thursday night, and it was the 18th victory in their last 19 games.

“I think both play a similar style – we both believe in defense and structured offense,” said UMBC coach Tom Sullivan. “We don’t have the poise that I would like to see us exhibit when we play against the full-court pressure of the half-court pressure. That allows them to get some easy baskets and those easy baskets are very difficult for us to make up in a half-court set.”

Washington led all scorers with 19 points, but only had one rebound and did not have an assist. Sophomore forward Cory McJimson was the only other Retriever in double figures with 10 points, to go along with a team-leading seven boards.

“To start the second half BU got to the foul line, and after they hit their foul shots, they we able to set up their press,” Washington said. “In the first half we were hitting our shots so they couldn’t really set up the press. Once they set it up, sure enough, sooner or later, the turnovers were going to come.”

The Terriers had another balanced scoring night, as Carr and senior forward Jason Grochowalski paced BU with 13 apiece. Butt had 12 – all in the second half – while Wynn netted 11 with seven assists.

“There was a point in the second half where it appeared to me that they got very tired, so that was to our advantage,” Wolff said.

BU’s next game is at the University of Vermont on Sunday in Burlington, Vt. A Terrier win would put them in a tie for first place in the conference with the Catamounts, who have won 13 games in a row.