The Boston University men’s basketball team will look for a second consecutive win on Monday as it travels to Easton, Pennsylvania for a matchup with Patriot league rival Lafayette College. The Terriers (9-13, 5-6 Patriot League) seek to improve upon their poor 3-8 record on the road this season.
BU comes into this game after beating the United States Naval Academy 62-59 on Wednesday at Agganis Arena, where it boasts a 6-4 record. Beating Navy (9-15, 5-7 Patriot League) for the sixth time in a row, the Terriers won in thrilling fashion due to tenacious defense and the efforts of sophomore guard Eric Fanning, who finished with a game-high 20 points.
“It was a good team effort,” BU coach Joe Jones said of the win. “I thought in the second half we had some really good defensive stops which helped us, and obviously we made some key plays down the stretch.”
The Terriers had three players in double figures against Navy — Fanning, sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson and junior forward Justin Alston. Hankerson, who ranks third in the Patriot League in scoring, had 13 points and five assists, but also shot only 5-for-12 from the field and committed six turnovers.
Instead, BU relied on a more balanced effort in this one. Fanning, who reached 20 points for the third straight game, hit the game-winning 3-pointer with seconds to go. Alston, who added 10 points and 11 boards, recorded his first career double-double.
Strong defense was also a factor in the win, especially in the first half, where the Terriers only allowed 19 points on 25 percent shooting. BU currently allows the third-most points per game in the Patriot League, surrendering just fewer than 70 per contest.
“The key for us is being consistent,” Jones said. “If you look at the league, I think a lot of people are having problems consistently defending. There are some teams like Lehigh, who I think have done a really nice job, and that’s why they’ve turned a corner … with so many young players, it’s difficult to sustain it.”
An area on which Jones said his team can improve is limiting its reliance on 3-pointers.
The team has made the second most 3-pointers in the league, but is only shooting 37 percent from long range, fourth in the Patriot League. In the previous game, four players hit from deep, but Hankerson went a dismal 2-for-8 from distance.
“What we need to do is create better movement offensively,” he said. “There are times where we kind of get stagnant and then take contested 3-point shots. We’ve got to be able to drive and kick. Hopefully, we can continue to work on taking good ones.”
BU will have its hands full against Lafayette (14-8, 6-5 Patriot League), the best-scoring offense in the Patriot League, averaging an impressive 75 points per contest.
The Leopards come into this game looking to win their fourth straight. Most recently, they defeated a resilient Bucknell University squad at home by a score of 84-74 in overtime.
Trailing by 15 at the half and 17 with 16 minutes left in the second, they came roaring back for a comeback.
Leading the way for the Leopards in the victory was the play of forward Dan Trist and guard Nick Lindner. Trist and Lindner finished with 29 and 26 points, respectively.
One of the keys to the game for BU will be containing the explosive Trist, who is the leading scorer in the Patriot League. The 6-foot-9 senior from Australia comes into this game averaging 18.3 points per game.
“I don’t know if there’s another big guy playing better than him right now,” Jones said. “We have our hands full because he’s scoring a lot off jump shots and less off the post right now, so we really have to be weary of that.”
Despite the dominating presence of Trist, Jones said he is confident in his team’s ability to beat the Leopards as long as they show up ready to compete.
“The team that’s willing to play harder together is the team that’s going to win,” he said. “We’ve got to be up for that, and I mean that on both ends of the floor. We must be able to fight for position and be ready to play aggressively throughout the game.”
Nick Neville is a junior in COM studying journalism and the Sports Editor of the Daily Free Press. When he's not making a paper on Beacon Street, you can catch him working as a Sports Correspondent for the Boston Globe or helping to produce BU's only professional sports talk show, Offsides. Follow him on Twitter: @n_nebs95
