The Boston University men’s basketball team went toe-to-toe with a red-hot University of Maine squad having its best start in 19 years, but the Terriers fell short in the final minutes to lose 74-65 on Wednesday.
Despite the loss, BU showed tenacity and refused to let the game get out of reach in front of their home crowd. Maine went on a few runs throughout the game, but every time head coach Joe Jones’ squad fell behind, they fought back to keep it close. However, with a little over four minutes left in the game and the score knotted at 60, the Black Bears closed the game out with a 12-4 run to get the best of the Terriers.
“I was proud of our guys tonight,” Jones said. “The second half, we were grinding and working to put ourselves in a position to win it. Then Maine, you gotta give them a lot of credit, they made some big plays.”
The Terriers had every reason to believe they could win this game, as they stayed close in nearly every statistical category that they did not outright beat the Black Bears in. The two that sank them, however, were free-throw percentage and turnovers.
They shot just 10-19 from the charity stripe whereas Maine converted 15 of their 20 free-throw attempts. BU also turned the ball over 16 times, and the combination of those two factors were what ultimately lost them the game, Jones said.
“Honestly, I don’t even think we played horribly,” senior guard and team captain Miles Brewster said. “We just have to execute and not turn the ball over.”
Brewster is being asked to take a bigger role this year than in seasons prior. After seeing their top-six scorers last year depart BU in the off-season, the team has relied on him to be a go-to scorer despite being better known for his relentless defensive effort.
There was a moment in the first half where, after attacking the rim hard and getting fouled, Brewster called for a huddle with a voice that echoed throughout the entire arena. As the oldest and most experienced player, Brewster’s leadership ability is something that both players and Jones appreciate.
“He’s our guy,” Jones said. “I really trust Miles. He’s been a great example of what a BU basketball player’s supposed to be, whether it’s on campus or off campus, in the classroom … and the guys listen to him and they follow him because they know he’s got their best interests at heart.”
Brewster and the rest of the Terrier squad attacked the rim early in the game by cutting hard to the basket and posting up their bigs. Sophomore forward Otto Landrum had five of the team’s first seven points, but got into foul trouble and had to check out with 17:06 left in the first half.
In his fifth game coming off the bench, BU once again got a nice offensive contribution from junior forward Malcolm Chimezie, who had eight points on 4-5 shooting.
While the Terriers looked to play through Chimezie and the rest of their forwards, the Black Bears’ game plan included constant pick-and-roll. This led to high-percentage looks, whether it was finding a rolling forward or a kick out for a shot when the Terriers collapsed their defense.
Maine ended the half on a 12-7 run, with nearly half of those points being accounted for by junior guard Kellen Tynes. Maine took a 34-28 lead into the locker room.
“I wasn’t really happy in the first half,” Jones said. “They were just moving us around. You got to give them credit, the pace of their offense is really good … We had a hard time keeping up.”
In the second half, the teams went back and forth until the last five minutes, where Tynes took matters into his own hands. He scored six crucial points, including two really tough fadeaway shots with the defense draped all over him.
The Terriers were only down two points with just over two minutes to go, but in consecutive plays, Black Bear sophomore guard Jaden Clayton drew in the defense and kicked the ball out to teammate senior forward Peter Filipovity, who hit a pair of open threes to seal the game for the Black Bears.
“Six losses and three wins doesn’t look great on paper, but I think we’re all going to start settling down a little bit and figuring this whole thing out together,” Landrum said.
The Terriers hit the road once again for a date with Wagner College on Dec. 10.
