The Boston University men’s basketball team’s season came to a bitter end Thursday night, as it was unable to slow down the offense of Lafayette College in the second round of the Patriot League tournament, losing 89-64 at Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pennsylvania.
The Terriers (13-17, 9-10 Patriot League) had no answer for the Leopards (18-12, 10-9 Patriot League) from 3-point territory, as Lafayette connected from deep on 16 of its 29 3-point attempts. Lafayette also shot an impressive 63.2 percent from the field for the game.
Sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson led the way for the Terriers, coming up with 14 points on 3-for-9 shooting and five made free throws. Junior forward Justin Alston and sophomore guard Eric Fanning contributed 12 points each.
“We were just a step behind,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “They played great. Defensively, we just had no answer. We looked tired. We just looked sluggish. We just looked like a team that was tired, and as a result, we played with very little energy and didn’t have it today.”
The Terriers were able to start strong enough, as they built a 14-4 lead seven minutes into the first half. After that, it was all Lafayette, as the Leopards immediately responded with a 20-2 run of their own in the span of five minutes.
BU would never take the lead for the rest of the game, as it was unable to stop the barrage of threes coming from Lafayette guards Bryce Scott, Joey Ptasinski and Nick Lindner, who combined to hit 12 of the Leopards’ 16 3-point shots. The Terriers were able to pull within six when junior guard John Papale hit a long 3-pointer of his own with two seconds left in the half, making the score 40-34 at halftime.
The second half was more of the same for the Terriers, who could not keep up with the Leopards’ rapid scoring. Lafayette jumped out to a 21-point lead thanks to a 17-2 run to start the second half. The Terriers would never get within 20 points for the rest of the game.
Besides their defensive struggles, the Terriers were also beaten down low in the post, as they lost the rebounding battle by seven. No one was able to stop Lafayette big man Dan Trist, who grabbed 10 rebounds in the game, four of them offensive. Trist finished with a double-double on 11 points and added three blocks as well.
Despite a disappointing season record-wise, Jones knows there were a lot of positive aspects of this season.
“I think a lot of the guys improved,” he said. “We had really good production from a lot of guys in a lot of different roles. Tonight, there just wasn’t a level of consistency that we needed to play at on the defensive end, and that really hurt us.”
One positive thing to keep in mind with this young Terrier squad is that there are no players who will be graduating in the offseason. This means that most likely, all of the same players from this year will be back for next season, more experienced and ready to play. Jones recognized this while also noting what has to be done in the months leading up to November.
“We got a lot to work on in the offseason,” he said. “There are some things we need to work on that have little to do with basketball. We’re just hoping to improve our program the right way and improve our coaching.”
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
