The Boston University men’s basketball team defeated American University in a thrilling 60-54 win to capture their second consecutive victory.
With the win, the Terriers (12-14, 5-8 Patriot League) now share the seventh spot in the league with The College of the Holy Cross.
Junior guard Miles Brewster scored 11 points in 27 minutes of play with a team-high three steals against the Eagles (15-9, 7-6 PL.)
“We’ve had struggles on both ends of the court, but defense is something we haven’t been consistent on. In a close game, a low scoring game like this — every possession counts, every defensive stop counts,” Brewster said.
Graduate student guard and forward Walter Whyte led the Terriers with 16 points, just three shy of 1600 career points, a feat only seven other Terriers have accomplished.
The Terriers and Eagles exchanged the lead seven times in the first half with five ties in the mix. Going back and forth on baskets in the latter part of the first half, both teams seemed to get in an offensive groove. Fittingly, American banked in a buzzer-beating three to go to the locker room — knotted 24-24. Both referees initially called it a good shot, but after further review, the officials reversed the call and sent the Terriers into halftime with a 24-21 lead.
Despite the overturned call, the Eagles came out strong in the second half, with a 5-0 lead in the first couple of minutes.
“We didn’t come out with the same level of intensity we started the game with. We let them dribble the ball up,” head coach Joe Jones said. “We’re just better when we play the ball.”
The Terriers worked through the slow start and regained the lead with a layup from graduate student guard Jonas Harper. BU maintained and extended the lead to 37-34 with ten minutes remaining in the half through a couple steals from Harper and junior guard Daman Tate.
The Eagles tied it up at 37 and grabbed the lead at 41-39 after working through their turnover troubles, but the score remained within three throughout the middle chunk of the second half.
The Eagles had 18 turnovers and the Terriers used them to their benefit, scoring 16 points off them.
“We’re going to have to continue to focus on blocking out for sure. We’re going to have to be better. We have 14 turnovers. We turn them over 18 times. That was the biggest key to the game,” Jones said.
Senior forward Nevin Zink, who had a solid defensive performance in the paint, secured a rebound to make a phenomenal and-one play to regain the lead for the Terriers with a little over seven minutes to go.
Back-to-back threes from BU off American turnovers gave BU a 48-46 lead with five minutes to go and the Terriers seemed to finally find their groove.
The Terriers cushioned their lead with another three with less than a minute to go and the Eagles found themselves down seven points.
The Eagles responded with a three of their own to bring the game to 56-52 with 20 seconds left.
American fouled three times in those final 20 seconds, but the Terriers hit four of the five foul shots to hold on to their win and split the series with American.
The Terriers will travel to Easton, Pennsylvania to take on Lafayette University on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“Are we the toughest team in the league? Are we the hardest-working team in the league? If we can say that at the end then I think we’ll be happy with the results,” Jones said. “We haven’t been, but we’re moving in that direction.”
