Men’s Basketball: BU Beats Albany for First Victory

Freshman guard and Patriot League Rookie of the Week Kyle Forman made a last minute steal and layup to give the Terriers a three-point lead late in the second half en route to BU’s first victory of the season, 69-64.

The BU Men’s basketball team had a chance to put their opening night heartbreak against Northeastern behind them. On Monday night, they did exactly that. The Albany Great Danes, a former rival from the America East, came into town on Monday night.

Both teams played a more defensive game, and Albany led for most of the game, with their biggest lead being 21-10 midway through the first half. However, BU never went into panic mode. They fought back and trailed by only 3 at halftime.

They then rode the sharp shooting of senior captain John Papale into the lead late in the game. The defense of an emerging young leader sealed the victory, with freshman Kyle Foreman collecting his only steal with 37 seconds left in the game. He followed the steal with a break away lay up to put BU up by 3.

Papale put the game out of reach with 2 late free throws, and BU won the game 69-64. Papale finished with 21 points to lead all scorers, hitting 5 of 10 three pointers and hitting all 6 of his free throws.

The biggest surprise in the game for both sides was Albany’s low field goal percentage along with limited looks from three-point range. Coming into the game, Albany bolstered a trio of experienced guards who could shoot the three ball well. They hit only one three pointer in their opening night loss to Kentucky, and expected to rebound tonight, and failed to do so.

Albany only shot 37.3% from the field and went 1-13 from three-point range, including 0-6 in the second half. Albany head coach Will Brown, albeit disappointed in his team’s performance, believed it was a game they should have won.

The Great Danes led for most of the game and only surrendered it late, holding the lead until only 7:49 remained on the clock. Albany’s last point came at 3:47 when Evan Singletary put the Great Danes up by one. BU collected 6 consecutive stops to win the game.

“If we have a bad shooting night, we better defend consistently, but we didn’t,” said Coach Brown. “That’s on me as a coach to get our kids in a better position to win the game.”

BU, while happy with their performance, knows they have many ways to improve.

“You always wanna win at home, especially against a team that’s been to the tournament three years in a row,” said BU guard John Papale. “Their defense opened up our 3 point shooting. They played man defense mostly, and we could come off good screens to get more 3’s, and we made enough to win the game.”

Coach Joe Jones praised his team for mental toughness and defensive fortitude for the duration of the game. But he believes that they need to improve.

“Cheddi [Mosely] didnt have a great game, but made enough plays to help us win. We understand our system better, and it’s miles better than where we were last year. But we still made a ton of fixable mistakes, like throwing balls into opponents feet and heads, untimely turnovers, and other big mistakes.”

BU will have to fix those mistakes before their long road trip, as the Terriers now play 5 consecutive road games in 5 different states.

They open their road schedule with a trip to Newark, NJ, to play the New Jersey Institute of Technology. They’ll also play at the University of South Florida, Kentucky, Binghamton, and UMass before finally playing another home game on December 8 against Harvard.

The team, unfortunately, does not expect it’s all conference star back.

,According to Coach Jones, “Cedric Hankerson has a few target dates over the road trip, but we do not expect that he will return to the floor on the road trip. He’s already made an excellent recovery, but we don’t expect him back quite yet.”