The Boston University men’s basketball team rode its sharp 3-point shooting Wednesday night to elevate itself over visiting Binghamton University in a 77-65 win at Case Gymnasium.
BU (2-4) sunk a season-high 14 threes, shooting 50 percent from deep against the Bearcats (1-7). The Terriers received long-range contributions from a variety of sources, most notably from sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson. Hankerson went 4-for-7 from behind the 3-point line and finished with a team-high 21 points. The Miami native leads the team in deep shooting with 20 made threes on the season, hitting them at a rate of 43.5 percent.
“This is the best shooting team I’ve ever coached,” said BU coach Joe Jones.
Hankerson’s backcourt partner and junior guard John Papale also found success from afar, making three 3-pointers and ending the night with 12 points. Papale and freshman guard Cheddi Mosely are second on the team in made threes, each having made 14 on the season. Mosely shot 2-for-5 from long range against the Bearcats.
“We shoot the ball well,” Jones said. “We were getting them, and we were open, and we got loose, and that’s what we do. We have a lot of guys that can make them.”
Most BU players who checked in at least attempted a deep shot, even as Jones emptied his bench toward the end of the game. Seven of the 13 Terriers to play Wednesday recorded an attempt from the 3-point range.
BU relied on its accurate shooting in the second half to survive various comeback attempts from Binghamton.
Two minutes into the second half, as BU worked the ball around the perimeter, Hankerson swung a pass over to junior forward Nathan Dieudonne, who peeled off a screen and sunk in a 3-pointer. It was a rare result this season for Dieudonne, who has only made three long-range shots this season and shoots from distance at a rate of 23.1 percent.
With 12:26 remaining, Papale found sophomore guard Eric Fanning at the top of the key. Fanning looked down on his defender and then rose for a 3-point attempt that touched off the rim and backboard before dropping in. Fanning shot a perfect 2-for-2 from deep on the night, matching his previous season total for made threes.
“He’s a very good player,” Jones said about Fanning. “We’re not the same team if he’s not playing well.”
One name that joined the list of prominent scorers Wednesday was freshman guard Will Goff. Having played just four total minutes and attempted only a single field goal prior to this event, Goff managed extended playing time and shooting opportunities with BU holding a large lead over the Bearcats.
With 9:53 on the clock in the second half, Fanning threw a crosscourt pass to Goff, who fired in a triple to raise BU’s lead to 22. Then, with 7:15 to go, Hankerson squeezed between a double team of defenders and fired a pass to the open Goff in the opposite corner, where the freshman again delivered from long range to put BU up by 17.
While the Bearcats came back, cutting BU’s lead down to 11 at one point, the Terriers’ shooting kept the home team in front. With nearly six minutes remaining, Hankerson hit a triple on another assist from Papale. With 3:47 to go, Mosely caught a pass from Hankerson on the perimeter and, pushed back by a pick in front of him, shot over two players to sink his second three.
The Terriers’ performance from 3-point range against Binghamton was by far its best of the season — BU made eight triples against both Northeastern University and the University of New Hampshire and nine in its games against Norfolk State University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The Terriers had also not managed to shoot better than 42.9 percent from deep in a single game prior to Wednesday night.
Despite the team’s strong performance from behind the arc Wednesday, Jones said his team cannot be as overly reliant on long-range shooting. Before Wednesday, BU was tied for 36th in the nation in made threes per game with 8.6, exhibiting their dependency on the three.
“The problem that we have is when we rely solely on [3-point shooting] and that hurts us,” Jones said. “And we try to throw more diversity into our offense by going into the paint, driving into the paint, cutting, so we’re not just throwing the ball around the perimeter and shooting a 3 because that’s what we do at times.”
