Men’s basketball falls at Kentucky, responds with win at Binghamton

In the third game of its current road swing, the Boston University men’s basketball team could not to slow down No. 1 University of Kentucky, losing by a score of 82-62 Tuesday.

The Terriers (3-3) would bounce back, however, in their next game at Binghamton University on Saturday afternoon. BU relied on its big men in the contest, as the Terriers outrebounded the Bearcats (1-4) by an impressive 46-29 margin on their way to a 75-65 victory.

“I thought in both games, our effort was inconsistent,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “It’s not that we don’t battle, don’t get me wrong. I just think there are times when our concentration and focus and energy is not there.

“We got to figure out a way to be just a little more consistent with our effort and focus,” Jones added. “But it’s not like my guys don’t play hard, that I wouldn’t say.”

In their game against the Wildcats (6-0), the Terriers worked hard to keep the game competitive in the first half. They managed to take a 32-31 lead with 3:40 left in the first frame, before Kentucky closed out the period on a 9-1 run. The Wildcats went on to outscore BU 42-29 in the second half to secure the victory.

Senior guard John Papale finished with a team-high 15 points against Kentucky, while senior forward Nathan Dieudonne and freshman guard Kyle Foreman contributed 11 points each. However, BU gave up 17 turnovers in the game, with eight coming from Foreman alone. Jones voiced his displeasure with his team’s ball control after the game.

“I’m proud of our team and I thought we fought hard,” Jones said. “I thought Kentucky forced us to make some mental mistakes. We don’t normally see their quickness and length, and at times it bothered us. Seventeen turnovers is a lot for us, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Things got better for the Terriers in their game against the Bearcats, despite not having junior guards Cedric Hankerson, Eric Fanning, Cameron Curry or sophomore guard Will Goff available. BU relied on sophomore guard Cheddi Mosely in the first half, as he hit four 3-point shots to give him 23 points. He finished with 26 points, a career-high, and the Terriers led 42-30 at halftime.

According to Jones, the reason Mosely dominated the first half was because of the Bearcats’ respect for Papale, who leads the team in 3-point field goals made this season. Papale finished with just eight points against Binghamton.

“They put a ton of attention to Papale, so it just opened up things for other guys like Cheddi,” Jones said. “He is a much-improved offensive player, [and] he was able to make them pay for putting so much attention to John. And Cheddi does a good job, he moves well without the ball and our guys did a good job of getting him the ball, and he stays aggressive. He got open a lot.”

The Bearcats opened up the second half on a 9-2 run to cut the Terrier lead to five with 17 minutes left in the game. From that point on, BU relied heavily on their big men, most noticeably senior forward Justin Alston and sophomore forward Nick Havener.

The two combined for 17 of the team’s 46 rebounds, and became the focal point of the offense as the game went on. Havener finished with 12 points and Alston chipped in eight of his own.

“We thought one thing they struggle with right now is being consistent outside shooters,” Jones said, “So there were going to be a lot of rebounds. We felt that if we did a good job contesting shots, there would be a lot of rebounds, so we were able to hold them to a pretty good percentage for us, and that really gave us the opportunity to get to the glass more. We did a good job rebounding the ball.”