Men’s basketball faces UConn looking for first win

Starting off the season with consecutive games at Case Gym for the first time in two seasons, the Boston University men’s basketball team was unable to defend their home court and walked away with a pair of losses.

The Terriers (0-2) will take their search for the first victory of the year to Hartford, Connecticut Sunday evening as they challenge the University of Connecticut, one of two major teams that BU will travel to face this season.

“We’re just trying to get better,” BU head coach Joe Jones said. “We’re just trying to improve, get better, and work on some things that have hurt us in the first two games.”

BU met up with the UConn Huskies (2-0) last season as well, putting up quite the battle despite ultimately falling by a margin of 51-49. Senior guard Eric Fanning dropped 21 points, sinking seven of 11 shots while current senior Nick Havener grabbed eight rebounds, but the Terriers plagued themselves by shooting 31 percent from the field and 15.8 percent from three-point range.

Head coach Kevin Ollie’s UConn Huskies bring a talented roster to the table this season as per usual. However, it has not been all smooth sailing for the team over its first two games. Against Stony Brook University Tuesday night, UConn coughed up 19 turnovers and found themselves trailing late in the second half, barely eking out a 72-64 win over a team picked to finish fourth in the America East conference.

The win did not come without heroics. Roxbury native Jalen Adams was a major factor in the first game of his junior season, saving the team with 19 second-half points.

Adams, a First Team All-American Athletic Conference selection last season, and redshirt junior forward Terry Larrier, who scored 27 points in UConn’s season opening win over the Patriot League’s Colgate University, will be the toughest tests for the BU defense on Sunday.

Despite falling twice thus far, the Terriers have received solid offensive contributions out of Havener. The Sarasota, Florida native scored 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting to lead all Terriers in an 88-74 loss to the University of Albany three nights after scoring eight points on 4-of-7 shooting in a 65-59 loss to Northeastern University.

The main issues that have plagued Havener and the rest of the team have been rebounding and post play. While they managed to hold Northeastern (2-0) to 40 percent field goal shooting, the Terriers were outrebounded by a 39-31 margin against the Northeastern Huskies.

“We’ve played against veteran teams that are going to put pressure on you for 40 minutes,” Jones said. “We’ve struggled in the second half of games against some of the better teams. I was happy with the defensive intensity against Northeastern, we didn’t always play smart but I thought we played hard. We struggled with that against some of the more veteran teams.”

Albany (2-0) had the advantage against BU on the boards, 38-27, including a second half in which they recorded 24 rebounds to BU’s 11. They took it to the Terriers in the paint as well. The Great Danes managed a 14-point win despite scoring just five three-pointers through piling up 56 points in the paint and 14 second chance points compared with five for BU.

“We are fouling too much,” Jones said. “Inconsistent on the offensive end in terms of execution and shot selection. We’ve been inconsistent in our ability to sustain a high level of intensity [defensively]. We’re trying to compete longer and harder and sustain that over time in our drills [in practice].”

This lack of a paint presence does not bode well for the Terriers entering the matchup against UConn, which boasts a couple of scary interior bodies. Six-foot-9-inch David Onuorah, a graduate transfer from Cornell University, grabbed seven rebounds in just 13 minutes against Stony Brook (0-2) while junior forward Eric Cobb, a junior college transfer, garnered seven boards as well.

Albany had four players with at least five rebounds while the Terriers had just two. This lack of boards could have been due to the absence of sophomore forward Max Mahoney, who tied for the team lead with five rebounds in the season opener.

“It hurt on both sides,” Jones said about Mahoney not being in the lineup Monday night. “His defensive presence in the paint. On the offensive end, not having another guy that can score at the rim. It was a factor. But we’ve been a good program because when we’ve had injuries like that, someone else steps up and we get it done. His presence would have helped us.”