The Boston University men’s basketball team kicked off the longest road trip of the season Wednesday night with a 71-61 win against the State University of New York at Albany.
The Terriers (3-1) unleashed a relentless offense against Albany (0-2) as BU had three double-digit scorers and shot 50.9 percent from the field. The Terriers distributed the ball well through the offense as the team finished with 18 assists.
BU head coach Joe Jones said that the team’s chemistry was a huge factor in the offense.
“Obviously we shot the ball really well, and we moved the ball really well,” Jones said. “Our guys played very unselfishly, they share the ball, they’re a true team … I thought we were really connected tonight.”
Nine of the Terriers’ first 11 points came from three-point shots as the Terriers jumped out to a 16-10 lead in the first eight minutes of the game, sparked by an 10-0 run by the Terriers and a five-minute scoring drought for the Great Danes.
The scoring run was led by sophomore guard Javante McCoy’s five early points.
It seemed as if there was a lid on the basket for Albany for a long period in the half, as even after the scoring drought ended the Great Danes made only 27.6 percent of shots from the field.
Going into a media timeout with five minutes remaining in the half, BU’s three-point attack continued as the Terriers were 8-for-11 from beyond the arc with McCoy draining three three-pointers.
Despite the shooting performance from the Terriers, Albany was able to keep the score to an 11-point deficit at the half with the score at 37-26.
Redshirt freshman forward Adam Lulka led the Great Danes in the scoring column at half with six points, while McCoy led the Terriers with 11 at the break.
On McCoy’s performance, Jones said that the team found McCoy open and he made the shots.
“I thought he played really well, the ball found him,” Jones said. “I thought guys got him shots, they got the ball to the open man. He was open and he was able to make shots.”
BU came out firing at the start of the second half with an early bucket in its end, and then a missed three-point shot by Albany, followed by scores on two more Terrier possessions in a row.
Even with the score at 51-33 by the under 12 timeout, the Terriers allowed 14 turnovers compared to Albany’s eight throughout the course of the match.
The three-point onslaught would continue from the Terriers as freshman guard Jonas Harper drilled a three-pointer, and BU finished the night shooting 45.5 percent from the three-point range.
Albany would continue to battle through the second half, but the Terrier offense was relentless with the two junior forwards Tyler Scanlon and Max Mahoney both finishing with double-digit points.
Going into the under-eight timeout, Albany managed to chip away at BU’s lead and bring it down to 14 points with some momentum going its way.
Mahoney and sophomore center Sukhmail Mathon came up with a momentum shifting sequence with just over three minutes left to play.
Mahoney came up with a huge block on the defensive end, which then turned into an and-one bucket by Mathon at the other end of the court with the score now at 69-54.
The game closed out with two free throws by Scanlon and a quick bucket from the Great Danes, with the final score ending at 71-61.
McCoy led BU in scoring with 18 points while Albany guard Cameron Healy led the game in scoring with 20 points.
BU continues the long six-game road trip — the longest trip since 2004 — with a game in Ypsilanti, Michigan, against Eastern Michigan University.
Jones said the team did not really talk about the length of the road trip, but he emphasized that the team needed to stay focused.
“We just got to take it one game at a time, that’s all we can do,” Jones said. “Make sure we’re rested and we’re doing what we need to do to stay focused in the classroom while we’re on the road.”
