It was a performance Corey Lowe had been waiting for. It was a performance Dennis Wolff had been waiting for. And it was a performance the men’s basketball program at Boston University had been waiting for.
BU’s 83-75 victory over crosstown rival Northeastern University (3-2) Tuesday night at Matthews Arena, a game in which the Terriers (3-1) shot 15-of-31 from beyond the arc and highlighted not only by outstanding individual performances from Lowe (27 points, 6 assists) and freshman Jake O’Brien (21 points – all in the second half), but the team as a whole, made a statement.
Not bad for a group whose winning mentality was questioned by Wolff three days prior.
With the type of win that had escaped this current group of Terriers time after painful time – an overtime loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, an overtime loss to Holy Cross at Case Gymnasium and another three-point loss to the Crusaders on the road, a ‘I really want that timeout back’ loss to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and many others – BU finally gave its followers a glimpse of what could be. It provided a look into the validity of the now distant words of Wolff two years ago when he sung the praises of his then-incoming freshman class. With the escape mechanisms of inexperience and injuries by the wayside this season, the Terriers have been faced with no other option than to display the offensive talent that’s splashed brush strokes across a canvas, but never painted a full portrait.
Lowe was remarkable in the first half, beginning the game 5-of-5 with 14 points, including a four-point play in which he drilled a 3-pointer while falling to the floor in front of Northeastern’s bench. Both Lowe and Northeastern junior captain Matt Janning traded buckets in a fast-paced half. Each time BU started to pull away, Janning made a play to draw the Huskies even, the most impressive of which (aside from some high level of difficulty 3s) was a baseline jumper as time expired to give NU a 40-39 lead at the break after sophomore John Holland hit his second consecutive trey on the opposite end.
At the conclusion of the first half, Janning had 14 points to Lowe’s 23. Five Terriers other than Lowe scored in the first half, but had it not been for a pair of late 3s by Holland (17 points, 6 rebounds), no Terriers would have had more than three points.
‘I’ve been waiting all season for this,’ Lowe said of his breakout performance. ‘It’s kind of been a slow start, so hopefully I can get it going.’
‘We tried different players on him, just to try and slow him down a little,’ NU coach Bill Coen said of defending Lowe. ‘We tried to use a smaller guy and a larger guy, just to give him some different things to think about.’
Given the back-and-forth nature of the first half, the way BU came out of the locker room was impressive. O’Brien, who played seven minutes in the first half after getting into foul trouble (he ended up fouling out for the third time in four games), began the half with a 3-pointer and a left-side jumper following a straight-away 3 by Holland to fuel an 8-3 BU run.
‘What I wanted to do was go out in the second half and knock down a shot early on to give me some confidence, because in the first half I didn’t have a lot going,’ O’Brien, who notched a new career high in points, said.
He got confidence, alright, as the Boston College High graduate finished 7-of-9 from the field and 5-of-7 beyond the arc, including a 22-foot trey that gave BU its largest lead of the game, 72-58.
‘In the beginning I started hitting shots, so they started coming at me,’ Lowe said of Northeastern’s defensive plan. ‘After that, I started dribbling, then Jake would go out to the 3-point line and they wouldn’t go out, so he was shooting wide-open shots.’
For the second consecutive game, Lowe established a scoring threat in the first half and, because the opponent worked harder to shut him down following halftime, he became a facilitator. The Newton native had 23 points and one assist in the first half. He had four points and five assists in the second.
‘I think in the past I’ve forced a lot of shots, even if I have it going. Now if I have it going, I have it going, but not force anything, so I’m just going to dribble-drive and dish and pass and it was working out today,’ Lowe said.’
However, it wasn’t just O’Brien’s shooting and Lowe’s passing that made the second half so impressive for the Terriers.’
Perhaps two of the biggest shots in the game didn’t come from Lowe or O’Brien. Junior Tyler Morris, who’s had a terrible start to the season shooting-wise, connected on his second 3 of the year with 6:14 remaining to put BU up 67-57. He followed with a hard drive and lay-in high off the glass to push BU’s lead to 12. Morris started the game 0-for-4, but finished 2-of-7.’
The other gigantic shot was from senior Matt Wolff, whose defensive intensity and aggressiveness on the boards (7 points, 6 rebounds) was another key to BU’s victory. With the shot clock ticking down and Lowe with the ball, he started to drive but was triple-teamed in the process of taking his shot. Lowe decided not to release and before his feet touched the ground, kicked to a wide-open Wolff in front of the BU bench, who knocked it down to put BU back up by nine after a 4-0 mini-run by Northeastern with 11:25 left.
‘I think our guys worked really hard inside,’ Dennis Wolff said of his team’s 30-28 rebounding margin. ‘Matt worked extremely hard inside. Everybody pinched down and we didn’t give them second shots, which was a big concern of mine going into the game.’
Defensive tenacity, capitalization on fastbreak opportunities and a bevy of 3-pointers. Sound like the team you’ve been hearing the Terriers could be over the past two seasons? Definitely. But as meaningful as this win was, Wolff and his players know there’s a long way to go.’
‘This is a good non-conference win, but these guys are interested in accomplishing a lot more than beating a crosstown rival,’ Wolff said.’
Game notes: BU’s three-game non-conference winning streak is its longest since the 2004-05 season. ‘hellip; Northeastern shot 57.7 percent from the free throw line (15-of-26) and allowed the most points since Dec. 30, 2007 (95 to Syracuse University). ‘hellip; Janning’s double-digit scoring performance was the 24th consecutive game he’s achieved that feat. ‘hellip; Freshman Jeff Pelage played just five minutes, but executed a crafty low-post move left-handed off the glass for his two points. ‘hellip; Holland had five defensive rebounds after grabbing none against St. Peter’s College. ‘hellip; BU’s shooting percentage has improved with each game: 29.7 percent against George Washington University, 35.0 percent against Bucknell University, 44.9 percent against St. Peter’s and Tuesday night’s 54.7-percent performance from the field.
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