The Boston University men’s basketball team will travel to West Point, New York on Wednesday to face off against the United States Military Academy in its second-to-last regular season game.
The Terriers (16-12, 11-5 Patriot League) will look to rebound from their previous contest, a 20-point loss to first place Bucknell University. BU has already clinched a spot in the playoffs, but will look to hold off Lehigh University and the United States Naval Academy for the No. 2 seed, both of whom sit just one game behind BU in the standings.
BU shot 40 percent from the field against the Bison (21-8, 13-3 Patriot League) and 25 percent from 3-point range. Senior forward Justin Alston, who had been on a tear, was 2-8 from the field and finished with six points. Senior guard Eric Fanning, who leads the Terriers in scoring, only had eight points.
“In sports, you’ve got to be prepared to move,” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “I thought we were playing really well up until that point. Outside of Bucknell, I really felt good about us playing our best ball late in the year. Now, we’ve got to be able to regroup.”
Jones shook things up a little bit bringing sophomore Kyle Foreman off the bench for the second time this season. Freshman forward Tyler Scanlon, who had started every game since Dec. 10, was also brought off the bench. Jones said that he modified the lineups for Senior Day and will return to the usual starting five with both Scanlon and Foreman.
“I’m going to pay tribute to my seniors by starting my seniors, but that threw us off, even though it was only for a couple of minutes, it even threw me off in terms of my rotations and who I play next,” Jones said. “It was kind of this uncomfortable feel and then we got going. To come out in the second half and play the way we did to start the half, it was embarrassing, to say the least.”
Army (11-17, 5-11 Patriot League) has struggled mightily this year on both sides of the ball. The Black Knights are currently second to last in the Patriot League in points allowed per game, giving up 73.5 per contest and have only one player averaging above 10 points. They currently hold the eighth seed in the Patriot League standings.
However, the Black Knights have won two in a row after losing their previous seven of eight games. Army sophomore guard and Patriot League The Rock Player of the Week, Jordan Fox, has been a key reason for the team’s recent success. His 10 points against the College of the Holy Cross on Feb. 15 and 22 points against Navy (15-13, 10-6 Patriot League) on Saturday helped him receive the honor.
Freshman forward Matt Wilson is averaging 9.3 points per game off the bench for the Black Knights on 65 percent shooting and will pose a threat for the big men of the Terriers.
Despite the potential damage Army can cause, the Terriers have the strength to neutralize Fox’s recent hot stretch and Army’s complementing players. Fanning and Foreman have improved significantly from last year in defending their opposing position and Alston and other big men have looked strong inside.
Jones believes his team can rebound from Sunday’s disappointment and get back on track.
“Collectively, we’ve got to be ready to go,” said Jones. “[Army] is really going to try to push the pace of the game, because that’s how they play. We need to do a better job of controlling that. We’re going to mix things up defensively.”
