Men’s Basketball: Terriers Drop Conference Opener

By: Matt Doherty

In their final game of the calendar year, the Boston University Men’s Basketball team traveled to Worcester to take on rival Holy Cross in the first game of Patriot League play. However, the Terriers couldn’t pick up the victory, losing 80-64 and dropping to 0-1 in league play.

BU went into Wednesday night’s battle with a record of 7-6 after completing its non-conference slate with consecutive wins over UNH and Kean, but the Terriers couldn’t end 2015 in right fashion with a third straight victory.

Cheddi Mosely and Kyle Foreman both returned from action after missing the last game due to injury and Nathan Dieudonne earned his first start in almost a month.

The Terriers came out strong, going 9-15 from three in the first half including 15 points from Mosely, but only led 40-35 at the half.

The second half was a completely different story for BU, as the Terriers shot a dismal 0-9 from three point range, 8-27 from the field, and 8-13 from the free throw line as Holy Cross took a grip on the game.

The Crusaders outscored BU by 21 in the second half to pull out the victory. Malachi Alexander led Holy Cross in scoring with 17 points (15 in the first half), while Karl Charles had 15 and Cullen Hamilton had 11. The team’s leading scorer, Robert Champion added 11 points from his sixth man role.

As for BU, the Terriers only had two players in double digits. Nathan Dieudonne had 18 points and 9 rebounds in his return to the starting lineup and Mosely had 15 points all in the first half.

The story of the game was the tale of two halves as well as the paint. BU shot poorly in the second half as shots simply would not fall but they also got dominated in the paint with Holy Cross outscoring them 42-18 inside.

The loss of senior forward Justin Alston was evident in this game as the Terriers were lacking bodies down low.

Joe Jones and the rest of this team has no time to dwell on the injuries though. With a 7-7 record and Patriot League play here on out, the Terriers season can still be turned around.

BU will look to start off the new year the right way when it travels to Lehigh on Saturday in search of the first PL win of the season.