Basketball, Sports

M. Bball dominates UNH despite injuries

By no means is the Boston University men’s basketball team’s current situation ideal. Nobody wants to lose players to injury, especially when they are two of the team’s top five scorers.

But rather than letting the news of season-ending injuries to redshirt junior guard Tyler Morris and junior guard Carlos Strong impact the Terriers negatively – especially given how poorly the team performed in its final two non-conference contests – BU has shown an extreme amount of resiliency in its first two America East games, culminating in a 68-37 trouncing of the University of New Hampshire on Sunday at Case Gymnasium that put an end to a five-game losing streak.

‘Obviously we needed a win. For two straight games now, we’ve looked way more cohesive than we have, maybe even than the first semester when we were playing better,’ BU coach Dennis Wolff said. ‘To me, the credit goes to the kids. No one’s liked the situation that we have found ourselves in – we played two bad games, we didn’t act right, we had two guys have terrible, terrible injuries – and we’re still playing.’

Sophomore forward John Holland has been spectacular since the Terriers began league play, turning in a 25-point performance in a disheartening yet encouraging 62-61 loss to the University at Albany and following with another 25-point output against the Wildcats on 9-of-12 shooting (3-of-6 from 3-point range).

‘Because two top scorers are out, I feel like I need to be a little more aggressive, probably more than in the past,’ Holland said.

‘I’ve been John’s biggest critic and John has been fabulous in the last two games,’ Wolff said. ‘That’s about the only way you could characterize his play. He’s concentrating, he’s playing off two feet, he hasn’t been going in the lane out of control and he probably has played two of the best games he’s played at BU.’

In addition to Holland, junior guard Corey Lowe (10), junior forward Scott Brittain (15) and freshman forward Jake O’Brien (10) all reached double figures. It’s the third time this season BU (6-8, 1-1 AE) has fronted four scorers in double digits.

While the Terriers’ offense was firing on all cylinders (52.2 percent from the field), its defense – which is now a zone to alleviate fatigue and stay out of foul trouble due to BU’s suddenly short bench – was just as effective.

‘In the spectrum of college basketball, I prefer to be a man-to-man coach, but teams are not great against zones – that’s the fact of it,’ Wolff said.

The Wildcats (5-8, 1-1) shot a woeful 14-of-58 from the field (24.1 percent), 2-of-33 from beyond the arc (6.1 percent) and didn’t boast a scorer in double figures. UNH dropped to 1-6 on the road this season and hasn’t won at BU since 1994, losing 15 straight games.

One of the major changes to the Terriers following the injuries is a retooling of the starting lineup. After starting 28 of 30 games last season, Brittain hadn’t started until the Albany game this season, but has made the most of his opportunity, appearing more confident than he has all year in the post and showing shades of the aggressiveness Wolff had been searching for all season.

In addition to his post moves, Brittain drew fouls as he got to the line four times Sunday afternoon. Wolff said Brittain will remain in the starting lineup (over the other viable starting option in senior point guard Marques Johnson) until further notice.

The Terriers’ next two games will be very telling as they take on two of the better teams in the conference. The University of Vermont visits Agganis Arena Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. as part of a double-header and the Terriers travel to Binghamton University for a 2 p.m. tip-off on Saturday.

‘When you’ve played two poor games as you did going into conference after the bulk of our work first semester being pretty good, it’s interesting how quickly everyone just jumps off the bandwagon,’ Wolff said. ‘You lose two kids, and now everyone that’s following it has just totally written us off, and I don’t think we should be written off. I think we’re going to keep playing.’

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