Having won its last three games, the Boston University men’s basketball team will hit the road to face Colgate University on Wednesday night.
For the Terriers (15-11, 10-4 Patriot League), the ongoing three-game win streak is no coincidence. They have been dominating their opponents inside and out, scoring at least 26 points in the paint and shooting at least 39 percent in each game during the streak.
“[Before the streak] we didn’t share the ball,” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “We didn’t search out better shots. We didn’t play inside out. We took a lot of contested shots early in the shot clock. I thought we could’ve competed harder. I think we’re doing a better job of those things collectively [now], and we’re playing better basketball.”
With established outside shooting, Jones was looking to create more ways to attack the opponents, and he found one in the paint. Already having a strong season, senior forward Justin Alston exploded last week, averaging 19 points and two blocks in two games. He was honored with the Patriot League Player of the Week award as a result.
“We’re doing a better job of recognizing when he’s in a good position to score,” Jones said. “We haven’t been doing that – [Alston’s scoring] was part of playing inside-out.”
As for the home team, Colgate (9-18, 7-7 Patriot League) has already beaten BU on Jan. 18 and will look to remain in the top half of the Patriot League standings.
In the two teams’ previous matchup, BU was unable to dominate neither in the paint nor from deep, as the Terriers recorded a mundane 22 points in the paint and shot a subpar 5-20 from the 3-point line.
“We shot 25 percent for the game [from deep] against them,” Jones said. “We shot 65 percent from the foul line. We got outrebounded 38 to 35. We got beaten every aspect of the game last time around. For us, it was more of a total breakdown and not one area.”
Jones credited the Raiders for their ability to force bad offense.
“At times, they give you fool’s gold — they try to get you to do some things that you might not want to do as a player and get you to play to your weakness,” Jones said. “We need to play to our strengths. I thought they did a really good job of understanding our personnel, forcing us to take the shots we normally don’t take.”
However, bad offense was not the only fault for BU.
Colgate’s 3-point shooting is ranked third in the conference at 36.4 percent as a unit. In the last game, the Raiders took full advantage, as freshman Will Rayman and junior guard Sean O’Brien scored 21 and 20 points with five and four 3-pointers, respectively.
“Both of those kids crushed us,” Jones said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of recognizing where they are. We were a step or two slow to everything, and it showed. Both of those players got what they wanted against us.”
The Terriers will need a win to not only keep the streak alive, but also to remain as the second seed in the conference.
“Our focus [at Colgate will be] being ready to play,” Jones said. “Our mindset being prepared, being ready to go, and then understanding what we need to do to win the game against a team that’s got some very talented young players – you’ve got to be ready to go.”
