The Boston University men’s basketball team fell to the United States Naval Academy 70-61 at home Thursday night.
The Terriers (12-11, 7-4 Patriot League) were expecting a tough challenge against the second place Midshipmen (13-10, 8-3 Patriot League), and got exactly that.
BU has played the 2-3 zone on defense consistently this season, and again used it against Navy. However, Navy’s ability to crash the offensive glass was a perfect counter to the zone, which resulted in a tough loss for BU.
The Midshipmen currently lead the Patriot League with 12 offensive rebounds per game, and their ability was in full effect Thursday night, as they grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and scored 14 second-chance points. Seven players had at least two offensive rebounds for Navy.
“They had two or three guys going in [for the rebound],” said BU head coach Joe Jones. “We didn’t have enough pressure on the glass. I thought that was the difference in the game. They shot 40 percent from the floor, but the second shots killed us.”
Besides senior forward Justin Alston, who grabbed six rebounds, no other Terrier grabbed more than three boards. Junior forward Nick Havener, who was absent tonight for an unspecified reason, was missed.
For Navy, forward George Kiernan highlighted BU’s problem, leading his team with four offensive rebounds. Kiernan did more than grab rebounds to expose the zone. He also shot 3-for-7 from 3-point range, an area the 2-3 zone often struggles to defend.
Guard Bryce Dulin added to the Terriers’ defensive struggles, shooting 3-for-3 from downtown.
Despite cooling down after the early part of the second half, Navy had wide-open opportunities from the 3-point line throughout the entire game, even after BU switched from zone to man-to-man.
“They did [get a lot of open looks from the 3-point line],” Jones said. “I thought they did a good job of attacking our zone. We hadn’t really given up as many wide-open shots [before]. They actually got more shots against us than I think most teams do, in terms of just us not recognizing what we’re going to [do].”
Navy was aggressive in attacking the baseline to create open looks, Jones said.
“I thought they attacked us along the baseline more, and that really confused us because we really haven’t gotten attacked that way,” Jones said. “I’ve got to do a better job of preparing our guys when we get attacked along the baseline.”
Defense wasn’t the only problem for the Terriers, who shot 18-for-47 from the field. The ball movement struggled, as BU had only seven assists and 15 turnovers, five of which came in the first three minutes of the game.
“We didn’t move the ball,” Jones said. “You’ve got to give Navy credit. They were in our face. They did things hard. They were aggressive on ball-screen action, and we didn’t do a good job of moving the ball.”
One bright spot was senior guard Eric Fanning, who continued his dominant play, posting 21 points with 9-11 shooting from the free throw line. Fanning has been BU’s late-game option in the past few games, especially tonight when he scored 15 points in the second half.
Fanning could have used more help from his teammates, as none of his teammates was able to score in double-digits.
“We didn’t play very well,” Jones said. “We were just way too passive with the ball. They were aggressive, and we were passive for the most part. We had stretches, but miss a key shot, miss a key rebound, and then turn [the ball] over, and they were able to stay in control of the game. They outplayed us.”
