For freshman forward Tyler Scanlon and senior forward Justin Alston of the Boston University men’s basketball team, Wednesday night at American University was almost a reunion.
Scanlon, of Chantilly, Virginia, grew up 40 minutes away from American’s Bender Arena, while Alston is a Washington D.C. native. The duo embraced the moment, and their efforts helped guide the Terriers (14-11, 9-4 Patriot League) past the Eagles (5-19, 2-11 Patriot League) 67-64.
Alston led the way with 21 points and six rebounds on 7-10 shooting from the field, while the freshman Scanlon tallied 16 points and went 3-4 from the 3-point range.
It was Scanlon’s first double-digit posting since he had a career-high 17 points against the United States Military Academy on Jan. 25, something BU head coach Joe Jones saw as fueled by his return home.
“[Scanlon] came ready to play,” Jones said. “He made some threes, he put the ball on the floor [and] did a nice job offensively. He played really well.”
Although the Terriers are now riding a two-game winning streak, they had to overcome a one-point first half deficit against the Eagles, just like they did in their 75-58 victory over Lafayette College last Sunday. Despite BU opening the first 20 minutes shooting 13-22 from the field (59.1 percent), it was American who had the 37-36 lead at halftime.
None of BU’s players registered double-digit scoring in the half, as junior guard Eric Johnson’s nine points led the way, followed by Alston (8 points) and Scanlon (7 points). Senior guard Eric Fanning, who leads the Terriers in scoring, struggled mightily throughout, as he scored three of his five points in the first half.
Eagles freshman Sa’eed Nelson led all scorers in the first frame with 11 points, and the Eagles also got contributions from center Mark Gasperini (7 points) and forward Charlie Jones (5 points). American also dominated from the three-point range, shooting 50 percent from downtown as opposed to the Terriers’ 37.5 percent.
“We had a really rough start again,” Jones said. “I gotta figure out what to do about that because we’re not starting games well. It was one of the things we were doing really well. We were starting great, [but] now we’re struggling to start.”
Much to the delight of Jones, his team played the second half with the defensive tenacity that it lacked at the start of the contest. American’s hot start fizzled significantly, both overall and from the 3-point range. The home side went 3-of-8 from downtown in the second half (37.5 percent), and 10-27 (37 percent) from the field.
As the Terriers’ defense tightened up after halftime, the play of Alston and Scanlon began to elevate. Alston had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field, while Scanlon nailed two 3-pointers.
When American’s offensive efficiency waned as the game progressed, BU was able to maintain its hot shooting late in the game. BU finished the second half shooting 47.6 percent from the field (53.5 percent overall) and 50 percent from the 3-point range (42.9 percent overall) to help it preserve the road victory over a conference foe.
Although Jones wasn’t happy with the way his team began the game, its stingy defense helped his team take second place in the Patriot League standings, two games behind leader Bucknell University.
“To start the game, we were just over thinking our zone,” Jones said. “We were making some bad decisions and that was a factor in the game. I thought in the second half we did a much better job of staying with our principles and then I thought our man-to-man defense was better. Energy wise we were just a little better [in the second half] than when we started the game.”
