In its final road game of the regular season, the Boston University men’s basketball team came out victorious 79-68 against Lehigh University for its first out-of-town Patriot League win this season.
This win marked a season sweep for the Terriers (15-15, 9-8 Patriot League) over the Mountain Hawks (10-18, 5-12 PL).
“We tried to change some things up to break the rut that we were in,” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “Sometimes, you have to be able to break the routine and get in a different, more relaxed headspace.”
It was a memorable game for two Lehigh players, despite the team’s loss as senior Tyler Whitney-Sidney scored a career-high 32 points, while sophomore Nasir Whitlock did the same with 24 — the two scoring more than 82% of Lehigh’s points.
Even with these offensive performances, the Terriers’ highly-ranked rebounding kept them ahead in Wednesday’s game, where they found 15 second-chance points.
Junior forward Nico Nobili led the Terriers in boards, putting up a career-best 12 rebounds, six of which were offensive.
“Without Nico, we don’t come close to winning the game,” Jones said.
Jumping out to an early 8-0 lead, the Terriers started to take control.
It wasn’t until almost halfway through the first half that the Mountain Hawks got on the board with a layup from Whitney-Sidney.
Despite the early Terrier dominance, Lehigh fought back with a 10-3 run in the first half, closing the gap to just one.
The Terriers ended the first half up by eight, 36-28, after a buzzer-beater from sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander.
With just eight minutes to play, Whitlock knocked down back-to-back threes, closing the Terrier lead to one possession.
“I thought we had some guys that really did not defend great, and we’re going to need them to defend a lot better than this,” said Jones.
With the chance to take their first lead of the game, the Mountain Hawks drove the ball to the paint, only to be stolen by Alexander, who then assisted an easy breakaway layup by graduate student guard Miles Brewster, putting the lead back to four for the Terriers.
With another chance at the lead, the Mountain Hawks whipped the ball out to leading-scorer Whitney-Sidney behind the arc, but his hot-hands lost their touch, missing the critical shot.
A step-back three from Brewster in the final three minutes, followed by two free throws from freshman forward Ben Defty widened BU’s lead to seven as the clock wound down.
The win marks the Terriers’ first PL road victory, ending their regular season with a 3-12 away record.
Alexander led the Terriers’ offensive efforts with his second double-double of the season, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals. Brewster contributed 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
With this victory, BU clinches a top-six seed and first-round bye for the Patriot League tournament, which begins March 4.
“I’m glad we were able to get this one going into the playoffs,” Joe Jones said. “You don’t want to go into the playoffs without having a feel of winning on the road, and it looks like we’re going to be on the road right now in the playoff round.”
The Terriers host Lafayette Saturday at 1 p.m. for Senior Night and their final game of the regular season.
