The Boston University men’s basketball team fell 48-44 against the current Patriot League one-seed, American University, in a tough, low-scoring affair on Saturday.
The Terriers (14-15, 8-8 Patriot League) struggled through 19 turnovers, but still hung around until the end against the top team in the PL.
In the first ten minutes of the game, the teams struggled to take off offensively.
The pace slowed further as the score froze at 10-10 for over three minutes of the first half until Eagles (18-11, 12-4 PL) freshman Eric Michaels made a layup to put American up by two.
With the exception of one made free throw from freshman forward Ben Defty, BU’s shooting stalemate continued until freshman guard Azmar Abdullah landed a 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first half, going into halftime with only 14 points.
“We weren’t getting a lot of clean looks, and then when we got the ball inside, we just didn’t finish,” head coach Joe Jones said. “I thought [senior forward] Malcolm [Chimezie] had some bunnies around the basket that he didn’t finish, and that really hurt us.”
BU started the second half strong with a powerful dunk by Chimezie, followed by a three from sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander to make it a one-point game.
The Terriers picked up the pace, challenging the Eagles’ lead and tying it 27-27 with Chimezie’s layup with 13 minutes left in the game.
The Eagles pulled away as the half continued, but BU responded with a big three from junior forward Nico Nobili to keep the deficit to two.
“We just tried to simplify the game plan.” Jones said. “We wanted to hit our bigs that were looking for a short roll, and we were able to hit them and then that led to shots for our three-point shooters.”
Abdullah made his second 3-pointer of the game to put the Terriers up for the first time since 10:41 of the first half, now with seven minutes to play.
With two minutes left, BU had to respond to a six-point deficit after a run from American.
The Terriers challenged American with a last-ditch three-pointer by sophomore Michael McNair to make it a four-point game, but that was as much ground as they could make up.
“I was very proud of the way we fought today, and I want them to feel that way. We’ll get back to work on Monday and try to get ready for this big game that we got against Lehigh,” said Jones.
The Terriers are headed into their final two regular season games of the season, first taking on the Mountain Hawks at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, hoping to change momentum into the postseason.
