Cincinnati Slaughter

PITTSBURGH – March Madness became March Sadness a little earlier than the Terriers might have hoped.

The Boston University men’s basketball team’s (22-10) season finally came to an end Friday after falling in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to No. 1 University of Cincinnati, 90-52, at Mellon Arena. The loss was the most lopsided of the season for the Terriers.

The Terriers entered Friday’s contest knowing their chances of pulling off an upset were slim, to say the least. In the history of the NCAA Tournament, a No. 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 seed.

Before Friday’s game, BU head coach Dennis Wolff stressed the importance of his team playing “like men” and said getting off to a quick start offensively, contrary to what the Terriers had done much of the season, was vital.

“Obviously, we’re facing a very difficult task against a quality opponent,” Wolff said in Thursday’s pre-practice press conference. “Getting off to a good start is crucial.”

Unfortunately, the Terriers seemed doomed from the outset, missing their first 13 shots of the game. They fell behind 14-2 before finally converting their first field goal, a layup by freshman forward Rashad Bell, 10 minutes into the game.

“We got knocked back on our heels early in the game, more on the offensive end when we were having trouble making shots, but we were still battling defensively,” BU head coach Dennis Wolff said. “Early in the game we got some looks, and what you need to do is make some of those shots, which we couldn’t do.”

The Terriers shot a miserable six-of-30 from the field in the first half, and half of those attempts were from beyond the three-point line. Cincinnati, boasting the best defense in the country, held the Terriers to just 16 points in the half.

Junior forward and tri-captain Billy Collins led the Terriers with seven points and six boards in the opening half.

“We just couldn’t get anything to fall,” Collins said. “We weren’t setting up our offense and that put us in a hole.”

The Bearcats were up 23-8 with just over 13 minutes gone in the first half before their All-American point guard, Steve Logan, took the game over. He single-handedly orchestrated a 24-3 Bearcat run, connecting on seven consecutive shots, including four three-pointers from deep behind the arc. He finished the half with 23 points, outscoring BU for the period by himself, and essentially putting the game out of reach.

“Logan was making some NBA threes and on a number of them he was closely guarded — it wasn’t like he was standing there wide open,” Wolff said.

The Terriers continued to battle in the second half, however. BU held Logan to just four points after the break while hitting 33 percent of their shots from the field. Cincinnati only outscored BU by 11 in the second half.

Bell led the Terriers in scoring for the game with 16 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. It was the ninth time this season that the 6’8″ forward tallied double figures. Bell was impressive at the free-throw line as well, connecting on all eight of his attempts, a career-high.

Collins was the only other Terrier in double figures, recording his sixth double-double of the year, scoring 13 points and nabbing 11 rebounds.

“We just had to play for pride [in the second half] because we were down so much,” Collins said. “We played hard all year and wanted to continue that.”

The Terriers were beaten in every statistical category except free-throw percentage. BU ended up shooting 27 percent from the field, compared to 53 percent for Cincinnati, and hit only five of their 24 three-point tries for the game. The Terriers also turned the ball over 10 times.

BU will return its entire starting five next year and will, no doubt, be favored to repeat as America East regular season and conference tournament champions. That would mean another trip to the “Big Dance” with an experienced core of players.

If BU can’t take away anything else, their first trip to the NCAA tournament in five years was a valuable learning experience for a young Terrier ball club that is losing only three seniors — captains Stijn Dhondt and Mark Michalek, and Nacho Rodriguez — to graduation.

In addition, the Terriers will take the court next year with the services of their leading scorer, high-flying 5’9″ junior guard Matt Turner. Turner bowed out for the season after dislocating his shoulder in a non-league contest against the College of the Holy Cross.

Collins is already looking forward to next season.

“It was a great experience to get to the NCAAs,” Collins said. “Now we know what to expect and we can build on it next year. We’ll start working soon to get back.”