The Boston University men’s basketball team notched its 12th win in 13 games Wednesday night, beating the University of Maine, 71-65, before a crowd of 805 at Case Gymnasium.
On the heels of a 59-57 loss to the University of Vermont Saturday, BU responded by winning another close game down the stretch, emerging victorious in a matchup of the conference’s two best defensive teams.
In a game that featured 11 lead changes, BU found a way to contain Black Bear senior forward Mark Flavin, who scored more than half of Maine’s 38 first-half points. The 6-foot 10-inch senior exploded for 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting in the first 20 minutes, but managed just four points – all on free throws – in the second frame. Senior guard Eric Dobson was the only other Maine player in double figures, with 17.
Senior forward Jason Grochowalski led BU scorers with 13 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench, and junior Rashad Bell and senior Matt Turner added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Sophomore guard Shaun Wynn chipped in with five assists, six points and eight boards, but it was a full-team effort for the Terriers (12-4, 6-1 America East), as 10 players logged seven or more minutes.
“Coming off a loss like the one we had [to Vermont], I really wasn’t sure how we would respond,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “The way we responded was that we really hustled in the first 10 minutes in the second half. I think the full-court pressure bothered them, we sped them up a little bit and we were able stop them from just pounding the ball in to Flavin.”
Perhaps the most important contribution came from senior Daniel Daccarett, who scored four points and grabbed one rebound. The forward from Lima, Peru had seen action in just three of BU’s games before Wednesday night, but provided grit and depth when Flavin was outplaying the Terriers’ other big men. After senior Ryan Butt and sophomore Kevin Gardner each picked up two personal fouls in the first half, Wolff turned to Daccarett – who has had an academic scholarship for four years – to provide a presence down low.
“We were in foul trouble and the guys I had in there were not playing physical enough,” Wolff said. “He is an aggressive kid – he went in, scored a couple of baskets and banged around a little bit.”
The Black Bears (10-6, 4-3) jumped out to a seven-point lead early in the contest, but BU fought back to take a one-point advantage, 21-20, with 9:15 left in the first half. The final two minutes of the half were a struggle for both teams, as a Grochowalski jumper from the left side accounted for the only points before Maine junior Chris Markwood hit a three-pointer as time expired to give Maine a 38-35 halftime edge.
BU opened the second frame with six unanswered points in the first minute to take a 41-38 lead. The teams then engaged in a deadlock, as BU junior guard Chaz Carr made a long jumper to tie the game again with 12:21 to play.
Maine coach John Giannini changed Maine’s defensive strategy midway through the frame, switching to a two-three zone and forcing the Terriers into outside shots. The plan worked, as BU went scoreless for nearly five minutes. But the Black Bears had their own offensive difficulties, tallying just two points during that stretch.
“The zone only hurt us in the end and that’s because I was foolish and played it against their best shooting lineup,” Giannini said. “But when they didn’t have their best shooting lineup out there, it was very effective, and we did it because of their personnel.”
Bell broke the drought for the Terriers with 6:35 to play, as Wynn rebounded his own missed shot and fed the junior forward for a slam dunk. With the game tied at 53, Turner made the first of two three-point field goals to put BU up for good.
Maine cut the BU advantage to one point on a pair of Dobson free throws with 3:13 left, but an 8-2 BU run put the game out of reach.
“Maine proved today that they are one of the top teams in America East,” Grochowalski said. “It’s not just Northeastern, Vermont and us anymore.”
The Black Bears entered the game winners of five of their last seven, but they shot just 39 percent from the field and went 5-for-18 from three-point range, scoring three points below their season average.
“BU, statistically, is as good as any defensive team around,” Giannini said. “The game just came down to them making a few more plays. They made a couple big threes, they got some close block-charge calls – a lot of block-charge calls down in our end to go the other way. I thought we maybe could have come up with a couple more stops that we didn’t. I thought BU in the last couple of minutes did a great job executing and got great shots.”
Including Wednesday’s six-point victory, BU has become accustomed to winning games in the closing minutes – nine games since Dec. 3 have been decided by 10 points or less. BU is 8-1 in those contests.
“We told our team that this is what separates you from the middle of the pack,” Giannini said. “We’re a team that is close in record to those three top teams [Vermont, BU and Northeastern] and the only way to join that elite group is to win some of these games. Winning on the road is especially hard, and it would have elevated our chances to maybe finish high in the conference. At the same time, we realize that this is a tough place to win.”
Despite the victory, Grochowalski said Wolff was so frustrated at the team’s lack of focus at practice on Tuesday that he stopped the workout after only 30 minutes. With conference play in full thrust and the knowledge that a letdown in intensity could be a setback in what has been a solid season thus far, the team convened later that night to watch game film.
“[Wolff] didn’t come – he was just too disgusted,” Grochowalski said. “The assistants called the meeting and they said you have to look at yourself and what your role is, and realize what made us win all those games in a row. Everyone looked at themselves, came out, and played a pretty good game today.”
BU committed only four turnovers to Maine’s 10 and held the Black Bears to 25 percent shooting in the second half (5-for-20).
“Daccarett gave us good minutes in the first half, [Matt] Turner made some big plays, as did Grochowalski at the end,” Wolff said. “I think our kids deserve credit because they fought hard. We were in a little foul trouble, and we got production out of a lot of people.”
The schedule from here gets no easier for the Terriers, as they travel to Matthews Arena to take on Northeastern University on Saturday. The Huskies (11-7, 5-2), hoping for a large and rowdy crowd in their only home game of the season away from the smaller Solomon Court, sit in third place behind Vermont and BU, and are the highest scoring team in the conference at 76.8 points per game.
“If we are going to win and if we are going to be successful we need everybody,” Wolff said. “You hear coaches say that all the time but I think that is clear with our guys. We have guys who have strengths, and if they all play together, then we are going to have a good team.”