The Boston University men’s basketball team had its five-game win streak snapped in its 77-69 loss to Loyola University Maryland on Monday.
The defeat was the Terriers’ (10-8, 5-1 Patriot League) first loss in conference play this season, but they are still tied atop Patriot League standings with Bucknell University.
The Terriers fell behind quickly and did not dig themselves out of an early hole. The Greyhounds (9-8, 3-3 Patriot League) led 20-5 just six minutes into the game. BU head coach Joe Jones did not see the same fire in his team that he had seen in the recent weeks.
“I thought for the first time in the last three weeks we reverted back to some of things I saw in the non-conference play,” Jones said. “We weren’t ready to play and were sporadic, and at times able to make a run, but couldn’t sustain long periods of playing high-level basketball.”
In order to cut into the early deficit, the Terriers needed to shoot well from behind the arc, but shot a porous 1-18 from deep. Jones acknowledged that his team is much better than the stats show.
“Two games ago we broke the school record for threes,” Jones said. “The next game we went 12 of 16. There’s no way we’re going to keep that up. You have to have things other than making threes. You have to be ready to defend, you have to be ready to rebound and you have to be more patient at times. We have the ability to do all those things, but we just didn’t do it.”
Though the threes did not fall for the Terriers, senior guard Eric Fanning filled the stat sheet and played arguably his best game of the season. He scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. He was able to get to the free throw line 15 times and made 13 of his free throws. Fanning’s hustle and leadership, along with his points and boards earned him high praise from his coach.
“I thought Eric Fanning, outside the paradisiacal start, Eric played like a warrior,” Jones said. “He was a leader the whole game.”
The Terriers have relied on Fanning to be a role model to its younger players throughout the season, and he proved why on Monday.
“I heard him getting on guys,” Jones said. “He led us with his play, he went after the offensive rebounds, he went after the defensive rebounds. He didn’t let the referees affect him. I was really pleased with his play. I thought him and [junior forward] Nick Havener [15 points and 8 rebounds] really competed the way that I know our team can compete.”
Loyola guard Andre Walker led the Greyhounds, scoring 35 points on 9-14 shooting and knocking down nine of 12 shots from the 3-point range. Walker’s nine 3-pointers tied a school record. Jones praised Walker’s shooting ability, but took the blame for letting him dominate the way he did.
“Andre’s a much-improved 3-point shooter,” Jones said. “We struggled to make the adjustment after he made four of them. We consistently closed out short to him whether it was zone or man. We didn’t adjust very well, and I blame myself for that. I think we could have done a better job on him, but he did a great job.”
BU has really turned it on as of late, and when shots don’t fall, it is hard to win in the Patriot League. Despite this, the Terriers’ shooting only 5.6 percent from three and losing by less than double digits shows their potential.
“We kind of relied on three and when that didn’t fall, we didn’t have another answer,” Jones said. “There were times when we really competed and made some really good plays, but they were too far and few between, and we just weren’t able to sustain it.”
