The Boston University men’s basketball team faced off against Colgate University in the Patriot League tournament quarterfinal Saturday. Despite a high-powered offensive performance from Terriers senior guard Javante McCoy, BU was unable to unseat the No. 2 ranked Raiders and fell to the tally of 77-69, ending the season for the Terriers.
Going into the matchup, the Terriers faced a Colgate team that had compiled an 11-1 record in the regular season, four of their wins from BU matchups. The Terriers were also confronted with a personnel challenge with sophomore guard Ethan Brittain-Watts ruled out of play due to a shoulder injury.
“If Ethan plays, I think we play with a much better flow,” head coach Joe Jones said in a press conference Saturday. “If you watch our games, especially the last five games, he was really important because he does all the things that you need to do to get the offense moving.”
Despite playing a weakened starting five, the Terriers started off Saturday neck-and-neck with the Raiders. Although BU was behind for a majority of the first half, the Terriers were consistently within one possession of Colgate until late in the half.
Showing defensive tenacity, the Terriers were able to keep the Patriot League Player of the Year, senior guard Jordan Burns, at bay for long spells. Much of the Terriers opening defensive play can be credited to All-Patriot League Defensive Team member senior forward Sukhmail Mathon, who had 11 rebounds in the half and was two points away from a first half double-double.
The Terriers went into the half down 34-26. However, BU found its footing early on in the second, going on an opening stretch to tie the game at 34 points with 17:20 left on the clock.
Unfortunately for the away team, its grasp on the game would slowly slip as Colgate’s offense started rolling, pushing the Terriers into foul trouble. Across the length of the second half, BU committed 17 fouls, outdoing their high-paced offensive performance highlighted by McCoy’s 27 points.
“The foul line … was a big factor in the game,” Jones said. “They shot 39 foul shots, we shot 14, so it’s hard to win a game like that.”
The game started to truly get away from the Terriers in the latter half of the second, as the Raiders expanded the deficit past a single possession for the entirety of the last ten minutes. Jones said one of the final daggers to the Terriers season was a late three by senior guard Jack Ferguson, which gave the Raiders a nine-point lead with only two minutes left.
As the final buzzer sounded, it marked the Terriers’ fifth loss to the Raiders in 2021 and the end to their campaign in the Patriot League tournament.
“It’s just hard to swallow losing with guys that you really care about, you just want the best for them,” Jones said. “These guys had gotten to the top of the mountain last year and as a leader, you just want to put them in a position where they can do that again and I failed to do that this year.”
The Terriers ended their season as the No. 7 seed in the Patriot League tournament with a 7-11 overall record.
