Sometimes it’s okay to be No. 2.
The Boston University men’s basketball team completed the regular season in winning fashion Sunday afternoon with a 72-61 victory over the University of Maine at Case Gymnasium.
Freshman guard Chaz Carr scored 18 points and BU held Maine to 36 percent shooting as the Terriers completely controlled the tempo of the game from the outset.
BU (19-9, 13-3 America East) opened the first half hot, going on a 10-0 run in the early stages of the game. Sophomore forward Ryan Butt scored six points for the Terriers in the first six minutes and helped BU jump out to a 17-6 lead in the first nine minutes of action.
After a three-point play by Black Bears forward Errick Greene, Carr’s three-pointer at 9:32 pushed BU’s advantage back up to 11.
The two teams traded hoops, and Maine (10-17, 7-9) got the BU lead down to five, but sophomore forward Jason Grochowalski’s layup brought the Terriers’ lead to 12 at 33-21 with 3:07 left in the first half.
Carr made the second of his two three-pointers in the half with 47 seconds to go, and BU held a nine point lead at the break, 38-29.
Carr scored the first five points for BU in the second frame, and after a Butt layup, the Terriers were ahead, 45-31. Maine stormed back, going on an 8-0 run in the next two minutes to make it 45-39 with 14:03 to play. But Carr hit another three-pointer and freshman forward Rashad Bell and senior center Nacho Rodriguez each converted layups, and BU once again had its double-digit lead, at 52-41.
Rickey White then made a three-pointer for Maine to pull the Black Bears to within eight, but that was the last time that Maine would see a single-digit deficit.
BU went on a 10-0 run in the middle stages of the second half, and built its lead to 18 when junior guard Paul Seymour drained a jumper with 7:46 left to play.
The Roof crowd erupted when sophomore guard Kevin Fitzgerald fed Rodriguez for an emphatic slam dunk, and when the last media time out came at 3:20, BU had a comfortable lead of 66-53. BU would cruise to victory from there.
The second half was dominated by the Terriers, as Maine made only 7-of-22 shots and never brought the BU lead below six points.
“Our field goal percentage defense has been one of the best in country all year,” said BU head coach Dennis Wolff. “We’re not overly athletic, but we work very hard on every possession to make it difficult for the other team.”
Senior captains Mark Michalek and Stijn Dhondt, as well as Rodriguez, highlighted senior day at The Roof, as each was honored before the game and received the nod in the starting lineup.
With the game’s outcome already at hand, Wolff began to make strategic substitutions in the last two minutes to allow his senior players to bask in the hard work and dedication of their college careers. Michalek, Rodriguez and Dhondt received congratulatory hugs from the coaching staff and from teammates, as well as standing ovations from the appreciative Terrier faithful.
BU’s win was all the more impressive due to the fact that junior forward Billy Collins sat out because of a fractured shooting wrist. Collins is averaging almost 12 points and eight rebounds per game, and he will be reevaluated Wednesday morning, when a decision will be made on whether he will play in the conference tournament.
Fitzgerald picked up most of the slack on Sunday, scoring 11 points to go along with eight assists in 37 minutes.
“Without Billy, we all knew that we had to step up offensively,” Fitzgerald said.
Once the BU game was over, attention centered on the outcome of the University of Vermont (20-7, 13-3) game against the University of Hartford. If Vermont lost, BU would win the conference outright and get the No. 1 seed in next week’s America East Tournament.
If Vermont won, the Terriers and Catamounts would tie atop the conference, each having a 13-3 record. Vermont would win the tie-breaker, having beaten BU twice this season.
But a BU regular season championship was not in the cards, as Vermont beat Hartford 75-66. The win sent UVM to its first ever conference title in the school’s 102-year history.
BU was relegated to second place, but nobody was complaining about the demotion.
“Obviously, we are very pleased,” Wolff said. “With the injuries that we’ve had and to still end up co-champions is a terrific accomplishment.”
BU plays No. 7 seed Northeastern University in the first round of the conference tournament on Saturday. Northeastern, along with BU, is hosting this year’s tourney, but all games will be played at Matthews Arena.
“We need to take a couple of days [off],” Wolff said. “This has been a long season. In my experience, this is a week where we have to be smart about what we do. We need to regroup a little bit. We don’t play until Saturday, so we just need to gradually get prepared.”
The Terriers have played the Huskies twice this season, with BU winning both games in the final minutes.
“This is the type of play we need if we are going to be fortunate enough to beat Northeastern,” Wolff said of his team’s effort against Maine. “We have a lot of respect for them and we are lucky to have beaten them twice. We just have to play the game when it comes.”
Fitzgerald was optimistic about BU’s chances against a weaker Huskies team.
“We need to keep up our intensity offensively, and we need to attack the boards,” he said. “Northeastern is a good team, and they always play hard against us. But to win the tournament, you have to go through everybody and you just have to take one game at a time.”
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