Men’s Basketball: Terriers Travel To Newark for Second Leg of Hall of Fame Classic

By: Matt Doherty

The Terriers picked up their first win of the season on Monday night, a 69-64 victory over Albany at Case Gym. On Thursday, Joe Jones’ squad will look to go for two straight when they travel to Newark to take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

BU received a total team effort to knock off the Great Danes in the first of four contests in the Hall of Fame Classic. The Terriers were led by senior John Papale who scored 21 points on 5-10 from beyond the arc. Once again, freshman Kyle Foreman contributed to the attack totaling 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Foreman’s sensational two games to start his collegiate career earned him Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors.

The Terriers (1-1) hit the road for the final three games of the Hall of Fame Classic with New Jersey being the first stop. NJIT (1-1) lost by 30 to Kentucky in their season opener last Saturday but then rebounded to beat South Florida 60-57 in a game they trailed by seven with two minutes remaining.

The Highlanders are the third consecutive team BU will face to open up the season that played postseason basketball in  2014-2015. NJIT made the semifinals of the CIT Tournament and will raise a banner on Thursday in their home opener to honor their run. They return the top five scorers from that team who won a program record 21 games including knocking off a ranked Michigan team in one of the biggest stunners in college basketball last season.

The leading scorer for the Highlanders is junior Damian Lynn who averaged just under 18 PPG last year which put him 8th in D1 for underclassmen. So far in the two games this season, Lynn has dropped 19 and 25 point games.

NJIT joined the Atlantic Sun Conference this year after being the only Division 1 program not in a conference.

After the matchup in Newark, the Terriers will travel to the Sunshine State to play South Florida on Saturday and then to Lexington to face #2 Kentucky on Tuesday. This is a key road stretch for Jones’ team who looks to get over .500 for the first time this season.

Tip-off against NJIT is scheduled for 7:30 PM and can be seen live on the Patriot League Network and ESPN3.