Men’s Basketball: BU Escapes Hamden with a Win

By: Chris Lynch

The Boston University Terriers took to the road against the stingy defense of the Quinnipiac University Bobcats on Sunday afternoon. Coming into the contest, BU had not won consecutive games on the season.

When John Papale sealed the victory with a late steal and lay in, the Terriers picked up their second consecutive victory, defeating the Bobcats 64-57 and Papale continued his reputation as the killer against Quinnipiac. He sent the 2012 matchup between these teams into overtime, and hit a game winning three pointer last season with only 3.4 seconds on the clock to defeat the Bobcats.

While Papale did not have his best shooting game, he did tie for the team lead in points scored with 13 on the game. Papale only went 2-7 from three point range, but made his two three-pointers as part of a late charge in the second half to  come back from down 13 and scratch out a victory at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden. Eric Fanning and Cheddi Mosely also tallied 13 points, and Fanning collected ten rebounds, getting the third double double of the season for any BU player.

The game was a defensive nail biter, with both teams scoring below their average points per game on the season and turning the ball over 17 times each. BU was more successful on converting turnovers into points, with 21 points coming off turnovers to Quinnipiac’s 13.

BU also out scored the Bobcats in the paint 28-24, and played a more balanced game with their bench out scoring Quinnipiac’s bench 21-11.

Quinnipiac rode the strong performance of guard Giovanni McLean for most of the game. He led all scorers with 21 points, and also picked up five rebounds. The problem for the Bobcats’ offense was that only one other player, Donovan Smith, scored in double digits. Smith scored 14 points, and also collected five rebounds and two blocks.

No other Bobcat scored more than four points in the game. In fact six different Bobcats made only one shot they took for the entire game, with most of those Quinnipiac players putting up between three to five shots in the game, effectively making their offense a two man show. BU’s defense honed in on that, and limited the Bobcat offense down the crucial stretch of the game.

With the victory, BU gets over .500 on the road for the season and climbs back to .500 for their season record. The Terriers will return to campus to take their final exams for the semester this week. They don’t have another game until Saturday, the 19th, when they travel to Buffalo, NY, to take on the Golden Griffens of Canisius College.