Men extend winning streak to eight with 67-49 victory at UNH

DURHAM, N.H. – Last season, the Boston University men’s basketball team finished the year with 14 wins – nine of them coming against America East opponents. The campaign ended with a loss against the University of Hartford in the conference tournament that came after the Terriers won eight of their final 10 regular season games, and bested the University at Albany in the first round.

With Saturday’s 67-49 triumph against the University of New Hampshire at Lundholm Gymnasium, the Terriers won their 14th game of the season and ninth in conference. And they’ve still got six games remaining on their schedule (five against AE foes) – quite the accomplishment for a team that hasn’t posted a winning season in three years and that lost two of its key players at the beginning of the conference schedule.

BU’s current eight-game winning streak ties its longest since the end of the 2004-05 season and has propelled the Terriers (14-9, 9-2 AE) into sole possession of first place – a game ahead of both the University of Vermont and Binghamton University (which are, interestingly enough, BU’s opponents this week).

The victory marked the fifth conference road win for the Terriers – all of which have been double-digit blowouts. Part of the reason BU has been so successful lately is because of its ability to dominate opponents away from Case Gymnasium – something the Terriers will need to accomplish come conference tournament time.

As they have over the course of the eight-game stretch, each Terrier has performed and understood their roles with extreme effectiveness. Saturday night, sophomore forward John Holland notched his first double-double of the season (fourth of his career) with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Junior forward Scott Brittain was one rebound shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine boards, while junior guard Corey Lowe led BU with 19 points, and freshman forward Jake O’Brien poured in 10, including a 3-pointer that helped pull the Terriers out of a 9-2 hole.

‘I thought our guys played with a lot of composure, which is something they’ve been doing now for about a month,’ BU coach Dennis Wolff said. ‘They got down a little bit when the game started, but just kind of stayed with what we were doing, and I thought for about a 10-minute stretch at the start of the second half, we played real good basketball.’

Lowe, again, showed the ability to score in a variety of ways and was more aggressive attacking the rim than he was in previous games.

‘I don’t really know why I’m doing it because I’m struggling from the line,’ Lowe (who went 4-of-9 from the charity stripe) said of driving into contact. ‘A couple situations, I saw it was [UNH senior guard Tyrece] Gibbs, so I knew if I could get him a foul it would hurt their team, so I just went in to see what would happen.’

While Lowe and Holland didn’t have a particularly efficient shooting night (11-of-27 combined), they still played with enough poise and made enough timely plays to help set the stage for a showdown against Vermont on Wednesday that could go a long way toward determining the regular-season conference champion.

One of the earmarks of the winning streak – during which BU has averaged 78.9 points per game and allowed 66.0 – has been BU’s ability to answer big shots by the opponent and, in turn, squelch momentum.

‘We all just want to make plays and do whatever we can do,’ Lowe said. ‘If the other team’s making runs, in the past we might have tensed, but we know we have the offensive players and the ability to score whenever anybody else scores, so we just know we have to come back and give an answer.’

The Terriers certainly had the answer at the end of the first half, as they went on a 6-0 run to make the score 33-24. BU then started the second frame with a 6-0 sprint, virtually sealing the victory and season sweep of UNH (9-13, 4-6).

Perhaps more impressive than BU’s balanced offensive effort was the Terriers’ ability to once again shut down the Wildcats’ shooters. In BU’s first win over UNH (a 68-37 demolition at The Roof), the Wildcats shot a woeful 2-of-33 from beyond the arc.

And while Gibbs (20 points, 6 3-pointers) helped prevent such numbers from re-occurring, UNH still shot 28.6 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-35). Two of New Hampshire’s better shooters – Tyrone Conley and Alvin Abreu – were a combined 5-of-28 from the field against BU’s active zone.

For the sixth time over the course of the eight-game winning streak, BU outrebounded its opponent (45-37), but that doesn’t mean the Terriers have been particularly great at grabbing boards.

‘Rebounding in the zone is not the easiest thing to do because you don’t have somebody that you’re responsible for,’ Wolff said. ‘[UNH was] taking a lot of 3s, and they bound out if they don’t go. Their inside kids were active, and they were trying to tip the ball out to keep the possessions alive, so they did a pretty good job of that.’

Despite playing a zone – which has drastically helped reduce the number of fouls BU commits (just 10 against UNH) – fatigue is still a constant concern, given that five players are receiving the bulk of the minutes, and Holland and Lowe are both averaging more than 40 minutes per game during conference play (thanks to a combined six overtimes).

‘I think the fact that we’re winning helps everyone stay upbeat,’ Lowe said about fighting exhaustion. ‘I don’t really think about how many games we’ve played.’

Game Notes: Lowe’s 19 points moved him into 11th place on BU’s all-time scoring list. He needs 40 points to tie Neil Burns (1973-76) for 10th all-time. ‘hellip; With a 4-of-4 performance from the free-throw line, Brittain ran his streak of made freebies to 17. ‘hellip; Junior forward Brendan Sullivan scored his first point of the season on a free throw with 26 seconds left. He missed the second. ‘hellip; The Terriers lead the all-time series against UNH, 89-36, with Wolff holding a 24-7 edge against the Wildcats in his coaching career at BU. ‘hellip; The win was the Terriers’ 998th in school history.