Case Gymnasium has been good to the Boston University men’s basketball team this season.
The Terriers (12-12, 6-5 PL) secured an eighth-consecutive home victory led by graduate student guard Miles Brewster’s career-high 25 points, defeating Navy 87-65 on Wednesday night.
“I’ve been struggling offensively, especially shooting the ball, and I just keep telling myself that I’m right there,” Brewster said. “It was the perfect storm today, but I’m not surprised. I wish it happened earlier, but you can’t control those things, so you just gotta keep knocking.”
That is exactly what he did.
Brewster had never scored more than 21 points in his five seasons at BU, but he found a groove against the Midshipmen (8-16, 5-6 Patriot League), shooting nearly 91 percent from the field and 83 percent beyond the arc in a career outing.
Sophomore guard Michael McNair also played a big role for the Terriers, shooting 7-for-8 from the field, including four 3-pointers.
“Both those guys came in with a lot of confidence knowing that [sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander] was out,” head coach Joe Jones said. “Those guys took it upon themselves to be more aggressive because we were going to need guys to step up, and they did.”
BU won the tip-off and was off to the races early with a layup from McNair. With the exception of a one-point lead by Navy less than two minutes into the game, the Terriers never trailed.
The Midshipmen kept it close through the first seven minutes, but BU went on a 12-point run, including five from Brewster, to go up 25-11 with 11 minutes left in the half.
Navy guard Austin Benigni answered, scoring 12 points in the first half as the Midshipmen tried to rein the Terriers in, shrinking the lead to seven by halftime.
The momentum was still very much in the Terriers’ hands.
“I was really impressed with our mindset,” Jones said. “These guys came out and they attacked the game right away…The whole thing [was] to try to be more tough than they were, and to get loose balls and get offensive rebounds, and we were playing hard.”
McNair set off the scoring in the second half as he had in the first, this time with a 3-pointer.
Junior forward Otto Landrum started an 8-0 run for the Terriers, including McNair’s second three-pointer of the period, increasing their lead to thirteen.
The Midshipmen ended this run at the free-throw line, trying to regain control with under 15 minutes to play. The teams exchanged baskets for the next couple minutes until junior guard Ben Roy set off another 9-0 run.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Brewster said. “Navy went on runs during that stretch, and they hit a lot of tough shots. You just got to be able to respond back on the defensive end and the offensive end.”
The Terriers pushed their lead to 22 by 6:18 of the second half.
BU’s ball handling slipped up near the end of the second half, committing five of its nine turnovers in the last six minutes of the game, giving the Midshipmen extra chances to claw back.
The Terriers shaped up to close the game, making every shot they took in the last three minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers from Brewster.
After shooting just 4-for-13 behind the arc in the first half, BU bounced back to shoot 80 percent from deep in the second half.
“We shot the ball very well tonight,” Jones said. “That was a major difference in the game…We had a guy go 7-for-8, another guy go 10-for-11. It’s hard to lose that game when [that happens].”
This shooting performance proved instrumental as the Terriers secured their highest win margin in the conference so far this season.
They will now hit the road to take on Holy Cross on Saturday at noon as they sit in fourth place in the conference with seven games left in the regular season.
