In its penultimate regular season game, the Boston University men’s basketball team struggled on the road Wednesday night at the United States Military Academy, losing 73-62.
The Terriers (16-13, 11-6 Patriot League) were absolutely unstoppable at the beginning of the game, quickly jumping to a 23-6 lead with 11:46 to go in the first half. They played the inside-out game to perfection — most of their points came from either the paint or the 3-point line.
However, the stage was set for Army (12-17, 6-11 Patriot League), which was celebrating its Senior Day and made a 25-point comeback in its prior game against its rival the United States Naval Academy.
“We got off to a great start, and then we struggled,” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “After that, they just outplayed us.”
The momentum began to shift when the Black Knights’ bench came in. The team’s usual starters were on the bench for Senior Day, and when they came in, they were ready to play.
With 9:22 to go in the first half, Army guard John Emezie had back-to-back possessions of and-ones to cut a 15-point lead to a single-digit margin. After trading baskets, Army’s barrage of 3-pointers followed. By halftime, the Black Knights held a 38-36 lead.
Army’s bench scored 27 points in the first half. It would finish the game with 52 points.
Starring from Army’s bench unit was junior forward Luke Morrison, who scored 19 points and shot 5-5 from downtown.
“We call our shooters [to defend], and we want them to put the ball on the floor,” Jones said. “We didn’t pressure him hard enough. On few occasions, we were there, but he just shot the ball over us.”
One of those moments was with 2:21 to go in the second half, when Morrison hit a tough bank shot from the top of the key to secure the win for Army.
BU made defensive adjustments to stop Army’s momentum, but it was the Black Knights were able to successfully maneuver through them.
“We tried to change defensively late in the half and tried to play more zone and put them into our trap and they were able to beat that,” Jones said. “We weren’t able to make the adjustment going back to the zone. We’ve got to be able to change defenses. We struggled in man and zone.”
Nothing worked offensively for the Terriers either, as they shot 38.5 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from the 3-point line and 38.5 percent from the free throw line.
The odd stat line, given the hot start, left Jones perplexed.
“We turned them over 21 times and we scored 62 points,” Jones said. “It’s bizarre. We weren’t able to score in transition. We missed layups at the rim. We missed foul shots. We just didn’t play well tonight.”
Senior guard Eric Fanning was the only Terrier to score in double digits with 19 points.
On the bright side, BU was terrific in forcing turnovers and deflections. Sophomore guard Kyle Foreman and junior guard Cedric Hankerson, both of whom are among conference leaders in steals, led the effort with four and three steals, respectively.
“We played really hard [on defense],” Jones said. “We were giving great effort and playing hard.”
As a team, BU recorded 12 steals and forced 21 turnovers, while only giving the ball away 11 times.
Ultimately, the Terriers were unable to stop Army’s outside shooting.
BU will have to win its final game of the season Saturday at the College of the Holy Cross to secure the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League and guarantee home court advantage through most of the tournament, but it will need to be in much better form in order to do so.
“We need to play better,” Jones said. “The ball needs to move. We need to get back aggressive defensively.”
