After dropping three consecutive games, the Boston University men’s basketball squad faced more woes in its two-game series against Army West Point Jan. 16 and 17. The Terriers were blown out by a score of 79-59 in game one and 76-65 the following day.
In the first game of the series, the Terriers (1-5) struggled on the offensive during the opening half, going 7-26 from the floor and 4-18 from behind the arc.
The Terriers went down by 10 points in the first half, but their offense started to gain some traction after two foul shots made by junior guard Walter Whyte, bringing BU within three points of their opponents with five minutes left in the opening half.
Whyte scored a team-high 17 points for the Terriers by the end of the match.
The squad’s temporary resurgence petered out as Army (8-3) dominated the end of the half and went up 32-23 at halftime.
BU head coach Joe Jones said his squad lacked consistency and that his players have not found their best-suited roles.
“We’re having a hard time of consistently playing the right way,” Jones said in a press conference Saturday. “We’re kind of out of rhythm without guys that have been here, and we’re playing guys in roles that they’re not comfortable playing in.”
Turnovers also dragged the Terriers in game one — they committed 19, while Army had only nine. The Black Knights got 20 points off of turnovers, while BU scored eight.
In the second half, Army’s offense exploded, scoring 47 points and making 19 out of 32 shots from the floor — good for a field goal percentage of 59.4.
The Black Knights were spearheaded on offense by senior forward Alex King, who led all players in the game with 20 points. King was closely followed by junior guard Josh Caldwell, who scored 15.
Outside of the struggles on the court, Jones said his team still needs to figure out its identity and everyone needs to improve to find success.
“When things get tight, we don’t really know what we want to do,” Jones said. “We all need to be better.”
In game two, BU fared better and was able to produce more at the basket.
The Terriers went into halftime down by seven points, but Army’s shooting proved too much, resulting in a double-digit loss at the end of the fourth.
BU shot 24-of-53 from the floor, but could not keep up with the Black Knights who shot 29-of-54 and 11-of-28 from three-point range.
The Terriers were boosted by the return of senior guard Javante McCoy, who was unavailable in the previous matchup against Colgate University. McCoy scored a team-high 21 points and recorded three assists.
Jones was impressed by McCoy’s scoring performance, but said he could still improve on defense.
“He came out tonight and looked like an all-league guard that he is,” Jones said in a Sunday press conference. “We’ve got to sharpen up some of the things defensively … On the offensive end, he did a great job.”
BU’s offense was also aided by senior forward Sukhmail Mathon, who had 14 points, two assists and a team-high seven rebounds.
Senior guard Lonnie Grayson led the Black Knights with 21 points and went 3-of-7 from behind the three-point line. Caldwell had another impressive performance for Army, scoring 17 points.
Despite improvements shooting the ball, turnovers hindered the Terriers again in game two. BU gave up the ball 17 times and allowed 13 points off of turnovers.
Although the Terriers came up short, Jones said he was proud of the way his team persevered and is confident they have the talent to turn a corner.
“We just got to keep chipping away and not focus on the fact that we’re 1-5,” Jones said. “Focus on the fact that we got a little better today. Let’s get a little bit better tomorrow.”
BU will play its next series on the road against Lafayette College (5-1) on Saturday and Sunday, with the first game slated for a 4 p.m. tip-off and the following day’s game set for a 6 p.m. start.
Can somebody explain to me why BU keeps getting dominated by schools that are 3-4x smaller?