Free throws plagued the Boston University’s men’s basketball team Thursday night in its 71-67 loss to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
The Terriers (8-12, 4-5 Patriot League) shot 13-of-22 from the charity stripe, which ultimately led to the Black Knights (14-6, 5-4 Patriot League) pulling away in the second half after the Terriers had a five-point lead at halftime.
Also hurting the Terriers was their inability to get key stops late in the game, as Army shot 13-of-23 in the second half. BU coach Joe Jones said he was unhappy with his squad’s inability to hit foul shots.
“We got to make our foul shots,” he said. “That’s one of the main things we have to do a better job of. We’re not going to win a close game not making foul shots. We also have to do a better job defending in the second half. Those two things right there can really hurt you. We just got to do a better job defending and hitting foul shots, and we’ll be right there.”
The Terriers went into Thursday’s game coming off a 92-77 loss to Bucknell University last Saturday. Now on a two-game skid, BU is tied for fourth in the Patriot League standings with five other teams, one of them being Lehigh University, a team the Terriers will square off against this weekend.
Thursday night’s game started off well for the Terriers, who shot 44.4 percent from the floor and held a 37-32 lead on the Black Knights at halftime. The Terriers were able to hold Army to 2-for-12 shooting from the 3-point line in the first half.
The star of that first half was sophomore guard Eric Fanning. The Wagner College transfer came off the bench and scored 16 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Fanning would finish with a career-high 27 points to go along with eight rebounds and four assists.
Fanning had made four free throws near the end of the first half that established a Terrier lead of seven before a Black Knight jumper cut the BU lead to five.
“He’s a matchup issue for a lot of people,” Jones said. “He does a good job of getting into the lane, and his four assists were pretty big. He’s a talented kid, and he’s just going to get better and better.”
However, Fanning’s superb offensive game was not enough to stop Army from taking over. In the second half, the Black Knights notched 15 defensive rebounds to limit the Terriers’ second chance opportunities, and used superb free throw shooting (92.3 percent) to put away BU in the final minutes.
The Terriers had no answer for Army center Kevin Ferguson and guard Dylan Cox, who scored a combined 22 of the Black Knights’ 39 points in the second half.
“I thought Cox and Ferguson really hurt us. That was a big part of the game,” Jones said.
BU lost its share of the lead for the last time with 4:49 remaining when Ferguson made a layup that was followed by two consecutive Terrier misses in one possession. Freshman guard Cheddi Mosely and junior guard John Papale then both missed shots that let the Black Knights extend their lead.
Mosely had a rough night from deep, something that the whole Terrier team struggled with, as he went 2-for-10 from 3-point range. BU shot an anemic 1-for-14 from behind the arc in the second half, Mosely the main contributor to that statistic.
Junior forward Nathan Dieudonne and Mosely were the only other Terriers to score more than 10 points, with 11 and 12 points, respectively.
Nick is currently writing for the Boston Hockey Blog. In the past, he has served as associate sports editor, and has covered men's and women's cross-country, women's soccer, men's basketball, and men's lacrosse for the Daily Free Press. You can keep track of Nick's exciting life by following him on Twitter at @nikfraz14
