Another thriller for the Boston University men’s basketball team sent the fans home happy Sunday afternoon, as the team escaped with a 75-73 win over Lehigh University at Case Gym.
Five Terriers (12-11, 5-5 Patriot League) finished in double-digit scoring, the least of which came from senior guard John Papale and his game-winning circus shot.
“John has hit so many shots, like in practice,” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “He can miss three in a row and the one for the game, he’s drilling it. It’s funny, I didn’t want to jinx him, but I knew he was going to make it.”
At the outset, it looked like the contest was going to get out of BU’s grasp when sloppy play dominated the first few minutes.
In the first minute of the half, the Terriers had committed two turnovers and had a blown defensive assignment, forcing Jones to expend an uncharacteristically early timeout.
“We came out really lethargic to start the game and I could see it, and I had to figure out a way to change that in them,” Jones said. “We just didn’t come out with energy, they were getting every lose ball and rebound.”
A layup from guard Devon Carter put the Mountain Hawks (6-14, 4-5 Patriot League) up eight points with 12:32 left in the half.
After that, the game began to even out when a layup from senior forward Nathan Dieudonne tied the game at 24, leading to an eventual 39-35 halftime score in favor of Lehigh.
The Terriers seemed lucky to only be down four at the half, as they lost basically every crucial statistical category, including committing six key turnovers to Lehigh’s three.
John Papale hits a game-winner with 1.8 left to give @BostonUMBB a 75-73 win over #lehigh @pl_mbb @DFPsports pic.twitter.com/f2fXvZNVWL
— Jackie Bamberger (@jackie_bam) January 31, 2016
One of the lone bright spots for BU at the half was that it limited Lehigh center Tim Kempton to just seven points on 3-for-7 shooting.
In the second half, the Terriers asserted themselves by tying Lehigh and going on to lead by as many as 12 due to a superb shooting performance from sophomore guard Cheddi Mosely. Mosely finished with a team-high 18 points, nine of which came from behind the arc.
Kempton then became the focal point of an ensuing Mountain Hawk rally, as the junior went 8-for-12 from the floor in the second half and finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Nothing seemed to be working on the defensive end for the Terriers when it came to Kempton, as he still managed to score despite being double-teamed.
“We have to work on [double-teaming],” Jones said. “We weren’t very good at it when we tried to do it. That’s the thing — we were so concerned about their three point shooters. They have three guys who can shoot over 45 percent.”
Although 45 percent is a slight exaggeration, Lehigh boasts an impressive trio that puts them second in the Patriot League in 3-point shooting.
Eric Fanning's 3-pt play that allowed @BostonUMBB to tie #Lehigh with 11.9 to go #BU @dfpsports pic.twitter.com/7MzQwtQMtG
— Jackie Bamberger (@jackie_bam) January 31, 2016
In the chaotic final minutes after Lehigh sliced the 12-point Terrier lead to zero, junior guard Eric Fanning blocked Kempton to give BU the ball with 56 seconds left.
With BU down three, Fanning again came in clutch when he converted a missed Papale trey into a layup plus a foul to tie the game. Papale did the rest of the work to award his team with the victory.
For the senior, it’s all about getting his hobbled team connected and working toward a common goal.
“The hardest part about the injuries — and all the guys that are out are great players — [is that] they play hard, they’re smart kids, but really we’ve been struggling to find the same five, six, seven guys playing together in practice and games,” Papale said. “The more we start playing together in the league, we get better chemistry with each other on the court, and now going down the stretch in the last cycle of the league, we’re going to be much better.”
