Off and running?

The Boston University men’s basketball team was lucky that George Washington University was just as sloppy as it was Tuesday night at Agganis Arena. But a late second-half surge couldn’t undo all the missed shots and bad passes that the Terriers made in their home opener, falling to the Colonials, 69-59.

The Terriers (0-2) lost despite strong performances from junior forward John Holland and senior guard Corey Lowe, who put up 24 and 21 points, respectively. Holland also had 11 rebounds to lead the team. Freshman Lasan Kromah led the way for GW (2-0) with a team-high 17 points.

BU ran into foul trouble late in the second half ‘- with senior forward Scott Brittain and freshman guard B.J. Bailey both out with concussions, the Terriers were limited to an eight-man rotation for the second straight game. Sophomore forward Jake O’Brien, who had five points and six rebounds, fouled out with a minute left.’

Even with all that went wrong, BU coach Patrick Chambers did find some positives in his team’s performance, especially its strong showing in the final minutes of the game.

‘We got better and we did some good things today,’ Chambers said. ‘We competed for 40 straight minutes, and I’m proud of that. I was proud of this team tonight.’

Trailing by as much as 10 for parts of the second, BU pulled to within five of the Colonials with just a minute left in the game.’ Out of timeouts and with very few fouls left to give, the Terriers could not cut the deficit.

The late surge can be credited to Holland and Lowe. With less than two minutes remaining, the two were the only Terriers to record a point. Each drained a 3-pointer and both had scores from the free-throw line-two apiece.

‘I thought we competed, I thought we played hard,’ Chambers said. ‘We never gave up. GW’s a great team. They played 12 guys. They tried to wear us out and I think our guys came back from it.

‘We hit a lull, but I thought tonight we just kept going and kept grinding and kept coming back,’ he said.

Sloppy play characterized the Terriers’ first half, however, with 11 turnovers and plenty of balls thrown away on bad passes. Luckily for BU, GW was just as careless with the ball, reaching 13 turnovers.

The Terriers’ last offensive possession before the half summed up their game, to that point. After a huge block on Colonials guard Tim Johnson, senior guard Carlos Strong got the ball back and ran full speed down the court with Holland close behind. Strong passed back to his teammate, but Holland could not get what should have been an easy layup to go down.

Strong and senior Tyler Morris struggled offensively in only their second game back from season-ending injuries’ last year. Strong had just five points, and Morris was just 1-for-7 from the field. Strong did have a good game on the boards, however, grabbing nine rebounds.

Worse for the Terriers, their 3-point shots were completely off. BU shot just 2-for-16, hitting fewer 3-pointers than the Colonials, who took half as many shots-they were 3-for-8. A team known for its long range, the Terriers’ first-half performance from beyond the arc was debilitating. BU finished 5-for-27.

The Terriers made a concerted effort in the second half to generate more offense in the paint, partly because of their poor 3-point performance. The effort showed in their free-throw percentage, which skyrocketed from 2-for-6 in the first half to 14-for-19 in the second.

BU attempted a huge number of shots but was unable to get any of them to stick. The Terriers shot 19-for-62, 30.6 percent, getting just one more basket than the Colonials, who shot 18-for-48. However, Chambers saw the sheer amount of field-goal attempts his team put up against a much larger, deeper team as a positive.

‘I see progress, I see determination and I see BU basketball starting to shape and starting to form itself,’ Chambers said. ‘It’s not there yet. We have a way to go and we’re getting better every day.’